Descendit Lunaticus
by Haprilona
Summary: When Ardyn makes Noctis choose between the Crystal and his friends, Noctis chooses his friends out of brotherly love and dooms the world. A decade later Noctis is no longer the Chosen King fighting to reclaim his throne, but a common hunter whose only purpose in life is his friends and protecting the remaining Lucian civilians from the horrors of the eternal night.
1. Prologue&Chapter 1

_**Note: This is story was originally written to be a music fic, but since FFdotnet doesn't allow links, I will just leave the raw text. If you want the 'full experience', I have this story on AO3 with links and pictures. Just Google Haprilona ao3 and you'll find the story under the same name!**_

* * *

 **Prologue**

 _"Noct, you must go alone."_

 _"What?"_

 _"If you can obtain the Crystal's power, we may yet be able to turn the tide. Elsewise, we are all like to perish here."_

 _"Iggy's right. It's our only chance."_

 _"But what about you?"_

 _"We'll manage somehow! Just get moving!"_

 _"You could still get to the Crystal... if you went on your own.  
Your friends will have to stay behind."_

 ** _Hangar gate closing. Please stay clear._**

 _"You'd better think fast. I don't envy you your decision.  
Betraying your friends for the greater good - the mark of a monarch!  
Step forth, Your Majesty! If you wish to obtain the Crystal's power, you must be prepared to lose all else."_

 _"The hell are you waiting for? The gate's closing!"_

 _"… I …"_

 ** _Gate closed._**

 _"I'm not leaving you here to die!"_

 _"Oh, Noct…"_

 _"…I can't lose you guys, too."_

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

"Thanks for the ride, buddy." Prompto turned the handle to open the van's door.

"No prob. I'll pick you up on my way back. Stay safe."

"You too. Oh!" He turned around in his seat and flashed his fellow hunter a sheepish smile. "Keep the headlights on."

Noctis faintly smiled to himself. "Ignis told you to remind me?"

"Yup!"

"Alright. Will do. Send my regards to Kimya."

"Sure thing!"

With a final parting smile, the freckled blond switched on his torch, checked his handgun and jumped off the vehicle.

"Forgetting something?"

Prompto stopped in his tracks, cast a questioning glance over his shoulder and yelped when Noctis threw an empty sackcloth in his face.

"Helps if you can actually carry the potions back here from Malmalam Thicket, don't you think?"

"Woops! My bad!"

With a shake of his head, Noctis watched his friend's shaft of light disappear into the oppressing darkness before he stepped on the gas and continued his own journey. His destination was Cape Caem. Aranea Highwind had sent him off to retrieve some old junk that Cid had left lying around. Apparently it was important enough to require him to "get it right now, on the double". Ever since she had been unofficially appointed as the leader of the former Fort Vaulleroy, she had become even bossier than before. She just _loved_ to put his former royal backside to work. Such a slave driver.

The hallowed blue shafts cast from the van's headlights guaranteed him safe passage without any daemon hindrances. He had personally led a scavenger hunt through the ruins of Insomnia to retrieve all the available enhanced headlight parts and blueprints. Cindy and Cid had secured a year's worth of food provisions and weapon supplies by building brand new headlights and lamps and trading them with the people of Lestallum. There weren't many safe settlements in Lucis anymore. Lestallum's population had tripled when rumours spread of the new lamp technology that kept daemons at bay even within the previously daemon-infested power plant. Besides Lestallum and Hammerhead, the only truly safe settlements were the formerly abandoned Niflheim bases; Fort Vaulleroy in Cleigne, now known as Fort Highwind and Formouth Garrison in Leide which had been renamed Meldacio Stronghold.

Umbra poked his snout out from the backseat and let out a single cheery bark.

"Almost there, boy."

Noctis pulled the van to a stop and parked it next to an old decayed sign. The sign used to have a cheerful painting depicting a lighthouse on a hill along with a large text welcoming the traveller to Cape Caem. Now illegible, the sign was bent from the middle as if something large had crashed into it. Noctis killed the engine, but kept the headlights on just as Ignis had advised.

So far Caem seemed to have only a few scattered daemons here and there, but one could never be too cautious – especially when he had to succumb to fighting like a regular person with nothing but his Engine Blade tied to his hip and Cerberus, his sniper rifle, on his back. It had been nearly a decade since Noctis lost his bloodline's powers in Gralea. Both the Crystal and the Astrals had turned their back on him when he refused to leave his friends' side for the sake of a trap masquerading as an uncertain victory. Darkness had engulfed the world and it was all because of him; he hadn't been ready to sacrifice his friends for the greater good. He knew this and he carried the burden heavily on his shoulders. It had taken him many years to come to terms with his decision and its results. All he really could do now was plough forward, do what he could with the abilities he did have available and keep those he had been born to rule over safe.

With a weary sigh, Noctis switched on his torch and left the van's hallowed lights. He trekked to the old house on top of the hill with Umbra by his side. Iris had begged him to retrieve her sewing kit while he was around. She claimed it was for sewing stitches on wounded hunters, but Noctis had a sneaking suspicion she planned on mending his torn prince's fatigues. Even after all these years, Iris still nurtured a crush on him and spent every moment trying to please or impress him. He had tried to let her know that she didn't need to put up a show for him and could just be her sweet self and act normal like she did with everyone else, but he was never good with words. He felt sorry for the younger Amicitia. His heart had always belonged to someone else and was no longer his to give away.

The house was in relatively good condition considering nobody had looked after it in its previous owners' absence. It took him a little while, but he eventually located a faded pink cloth bag containing needles and thread. He put it in his rucksack. The denizens of Caem hadn't had the time to take anything besides the absolutely necessary when the call to evacuate came. Noctis secretly found it impressive how Talcott had managed to pack his cactuar collection on such short notice.

Cid had left most of his stuff lying around in an unused storage room within the house. As Noctis rummaged through the several pieces of equipment, engine parts and what he could only describe as trash, he felt a chill wind blow from the open doorway.

"Should've put on more clothes", he muttered to himself as a shiver ran down his spine. Umbra's ears perked and his mouth opened to pant happily. Movement caught his eyes from his peripheral vision. Noctis' stance grew tense and his hand went automatically to his blade's hilt, but he forced himself to relax. Umbra wouldn't act so friendly if they were in the presence of daemons. Slowly Noctis rose to his feet and turned around.

His eyes widened and his breath hitched. He couldn't believe his eyes.

In the doorway stood a girl who uncannily resembled his deceased bride in her younger years. She was barefooted and wore a familiar white summer dress. Her skin was ghostly pale, but she didn't seem ethereal in any way. Her feet and the hem of her dress were dirty, her skin was decorated with cuts and bruises and her normally perfectly straight long blond hair seemed like it hadn't been brushed for weeks. Her messy bangs shielded her downcast eyes.

Noctis was paralyzed as a million questions ran through his head. What was happening? Was he hallucinating? Was this truly Luna? But how? She died. He saw Ardyn gut her like a fish. Why was she twelve again? What was she doing here?

Umbra's sharp bark broke him out of his stupor. He didn't have time to so much as utter her name before the girl dashed away.

"Wait! Come back!" He stumbled after her. Panic contracted his chest. He couldn't lose her again!

He chased her down the hill, past the van, all the way to the rocky shore.

"I won't hurt you! Please, stop!" She kept running. She was surprisingly nimble; whenever he was gaining on her and within arm's reach, she would suddenly gain an unexpected burst of speed and elude his arms.

"Luna!"

She slowed down and turned around. Panting, Noctis bent over to let his hands rest against his knees as he tried to catch his breath. The girl said nothing and merely waited patiently. Once he straightened up, she began to slowly make her way towards the sea. Noctis followed, but didn't dare to come too close lest she run away again. She kept going until the sea level reached her thighs and the hem of her dress was soaked. All of this was so unreal. It had to be a dream! But he could clearly feel the icy cold water numbing his calves and feet and the chill wind blowing through his hunter's uniform. He pinched his arm for good measure.

"Ow."

He was definitely not dreaming. He could see the girl's reflection from where his torchlight hit the surface. So not a ghost. Did ghosts have a reflection? His record of horror movies wasn't exactly impressive. Maybe said movies weren't the most reliable source for facts, either.

She watched him expectantly and beckoned him to come closer. Hesitantly Noctis came to stand next to her. He nearly lost his balance when his booted feet stepped on something tube-like. The girl knelt down and motioned to him to help her search for something. Noctis followed her example and felt around blindly. He was tempted to 'accidentally' touch her arm under the murky water's cover. Not because he was being a creepy old dude groping little girls – his nose wrinkled in disgust at the mental image – but because he needed to make sure she was real and solid. He was playing around in icy sea water with his dead would-be-wife's twin for Reaper's sake! None of this made any sense. He reached towards the girl next to him, but his hands caught hold of whatever he had previously tripped over. As he pulled it above the surface, he realised it was attached to something heavy.

A decayed pale arm broke the surface. Gasping, Noctis let go of it and turned to stare at the little girl next to him with wide eyes. She stood up and watched him silently, her head slightly tilted in curiosity.

"The hell you brought me here for?"

She pointed down to where the corpse lay.

"Who are you and why do you look like Luna?!" He stumbled to his feet and tried to grab her by the shoulders, but she easily sidestepped. He lost his balance and crashed next to the corpse. He turned around and hastily sat up. The girl lifted the corpse's hand above the surface and held it in front of him. It was a woman's hand. His eyes settled on the ring adorning one of her slim fingers. He saw a small scar next to the ring. Was it truly…?

He took hold of the hand and brought it closer to his face. Though the skin had lost all of its colour and was slimy from years of floating in sea water, and the hand was smaller than the one he remembered holding as a child, he could recognise that small scar anywhere. When Noctis had fretted about carrying a scar on his forehead from his near death experience for the rest of his life, Luna had shown him her hand and told him the story behind her scar.

 _"They are memories, Noctis. Past experiences that shape us into what we will eventually become."_ She always sounded so wise to him, even as a child – especially as a child. _"You will remember every story behind every scar for the rest of your life. Even when you are old and your memory is not what it used to be, you will still remember the scars."_

 _"Is that why Gentiana has a good memory? Does she hide a lot of scars under those robes?"_

 _"Certainly"_ , she had easily agreed to his childish theory without batting an eye. She had been so ready to entertain his silly ideas in order to get him to ease up and feel comfortable.

With a shuddering breath, Noctis stood up and lifted his bride's corpse from the sea's icy embrace. Her body was thin as if she had been starving during her last days, but at the same time she was surprisingly heavy from the excess salt water inside. His heart wrenched painfully in his chest when he saw the sorry state her body was in. Her only remaining eye stared emptily at nothing, while the other had been presumably gnawed by sea life. Her cheek had stretching holes through which he could spot the remains of what once were pearl-white teeth. Her small button nose and chapped lips with uptilted corners only confirmed her identity.

He couldn't even start guessing how her corpse had remained in such a good condition for a decade. It had travelled miles, all the way here from Altissia. Seaweed was tangled between her darkened wet locks. What was left of her once pure white ceremonial Oracle's dress was now unrecognisable; the bottom was torn all the way up to her thighs and dirtied from years of grime. The cloth underneath her right breast was darkened by blood from the old stab wound. The straps that once held the bodice snugly against her chest had snapped and left her small breasts exposed. Awkwardly Noctis averted his eyes and attempted to lift the useless scrap of cloth to cover her decency.

Splashing of water returned his focus to the forgotten girl beside him. She made her way back to the shore. Noctis followed and kept his eyes firmly glued to the younger counterpart. He didn't want his memory of Luna to be tarnished by a decayed corpse. He wanted to remember her as young, carefree and healthy.

"I can't bury her here. I guess I could bury her next to Jared, but… The least I can do is to offer her a proper grave with a coffin", he mumbled to himself.

Wait a minute.

Luna was dead, her corpse in his arms was proof enough, but what about the girl in front of him? Was she Luna as well? Maybe he could ask her opinion on the matter. She was the one who had wanted him to retrieve her body, after all. Not that he had managed to get out as much as a peep out of her so far, but it didn't hurt to try.

"Hey, Luna?"

The girl glanced at him over her shoulder. At the same time his hold slipped on the corpse and he had to balance her against his knee to fix his grip. Luna's head lolled against his chest, her single blank eye staring up at him. With an uneasy shudder he dropped his gaze to the slightly gaping mouth where water trickled down from the corners of her lips. Something moved inside her mouth. A small sea critter poked its head out between her parted lips. Nausea churned his stomach and he hurried towards the shore to set the corpse down on the rocks. He emptied the contents of his stomach a few steps away and spat the foul taste from his mouth before wiping the remaining drops of vomit on his sleeve.

At least he now knew the girl responded to Luna's name. He'd ask about the funeral arrangements when they were on the road and without a corpse stealing all his attention. Little Luna stood at a reasonable distance and watched his every move closely. Noctis knelt next to Dead Luna and gently pressed beneath her ribs. Water sputtered from her mouth, along with several unwanted inhabitants.

"Man, that's disgusting."

He carefully gathered Dead Luna in his arms and walked to the van. Little Luna quietly followed.

"Hope you don't mind if I put you in the trunk. Don't wanna scare Prompto to death. One corpse is enough for one day." He retrieved a plastic bag and with some effort managed to slip Dead Luna inside. The bag wasn't big enough to cover all of her, so he decided to leave her feet visible. They were more intact than the rest of her and less likely to traumatise any weak-hearted eyewitnesses.

Long untamed grass rustled when Umbra cantered towards the van. He had been patiently waiting by the house for Noctis' return, but had sensed that something was off and come to investigate. Seeming to recognise his mistress somehow, he let out a mournful whine and pawed at the trunk. It couldn't possibly be by smell. Noctis was sure ten years of drifting in the sea had washed her from all the familiar smells that Umbra associated with Luna. With all that had happened so far that day, he really should stop attempting to explain everything with logic. None of it made sense.

"Sorry, boy. Better you stick with this one." He pointed at Little Luna. "Doesn't talk much, but neither does the one inside."

Curiously enough Umbra didn't seem all that interested in the girl. Noctis returned to the house and searched for the components he had originally come to look for. He quietly chatted to Umbra and Little Luna to ease his nerves. He packed everything remotely useful looking he could fit in his rucksack and returned to the van. Umbra hopped to the backseat without so much as a request from Noctis. Little Luna made no move to enter the van.

"Aren't you coming? Thought you wanted to make sure I wouldn't disrespect you- her", he corrected himself. Man, this was confusing.

Little Luna merely shook her head sadly and stared at her toes. What was that all about?

Noctis knelt in front of her and looked up to her glass-like blue eyes.

"Hey. I don't want you to stay here all by yourself. Even if you're not Luna, I still want you to come with me, okay? I live in a nice place – well, as nice as nice can be. There's light, there's people. Hell, we even have a radio that occasionally works. Entertainment is minimal, but sometimes we get a nice treat with a song or two played from old records. Lestallum still has one working radio station. I'm sure you'd like it there. It's way better than here, anyway." He was rambling, but he really wanted this girl to come with him. He couldn't leave her here in good conscience, even if she was a ghost or just a figment of his imagination. "So what do you say?"

Little Luna lifted her left hand. He noticed the same small scar he had seen on Dead Luna. She offered her pinky to him. With a small chuckle, he lifted his right pinky and shook hers.

"I still remember that, y'know. Been over two decades, but I still cherish each and every moment I had with you."

Little Luna's blank face slowly melted into a familiar heart-warming smile. Gracefully she nodded and curtsied. Grinning, Noctis helped her into the van and to settle next to Umbra.

"Seat belt on. No police around, but if Ignis finds out I'm driving with unsecured kids on-board, he's gonna make me eat beans for a week. Fate worse than de-", he stopped himself and shook his head. "Way too soon. And not funny. I'll shut up now." He secured the seat belt on Little Luna and closed the door before hopping on the driver's seat.

"I like it when you talk."

Noctis wasn't sure if he had truly heard her speak or if it was just his wistful mind playing tricks on him. He peered at her from the rear mirror. She was absently staring out of the window and leaning her chin against her small palm. Nothing suggested she had said anything.

With a faint smile, he started the engine and took his phone to dial Prompto.

"Hey. I'm done here. Get ready for pickup in half an hour."

* * *

Prompto didn't even notice the silent girl in the backseat. Not a surprise considering she was sitting directly behind him. Still, Noctis couldn't help wondering if he was the only one who could see Little Luna. The drive back to Fort Highwind was pleasant. Prompto kept chattering about the old witch in the woods and praising her potion brewing and cooking.

"Y'know, she's the one who came up with those runes that protect the havens. That's why she can be lonesome in the middle of nowhere and not worry about daemons ambushing her in her sleep. Wonder if we could ask her to create some runes for the bases. I mean, I like hallowed blue light as much as the next person, but it'd be kinda nice to have the classic yellow light."

"Yeah, would be nice."

"Sooo." Prompto tapped his feet with restless energy. "What kept you for so long? I mean, I know Cid's organised mess is a mess no matter what angle you look at it from, but it shouldn't have taken _that_ long."

"I, uh, got side-tracked. Had to find Iris some of her old stuff and took a while finding them." Noctis kept his eyes firmly on the road. He didn't want his best friend to think he was losing his mind. If he or anyone else saw Little Luna, he would explain. If not, he would know he was finally cracking.

"Huh."

Prompto subtly eyed his best friend from the corner of his eye. The former king's unkempt appearance reflected the drastic change in his life. Gone was the lazy and relatively carefree youth who couldn't get up at a decent time. In its place was a burdened man who was hardened by life and past mistakes. Sometimes, Prompto barely even recognised his friend anymore. Thankfully those moments were few and far between. Noct was still Noct underneath that scraggly beard and unkempt hair.

"So, how's Iris?"

"She's fine. You should know, you see her as often as I do", Noctis replied evasively.

"I know, I know. I mean. She's liked you for a long time. And it's been a while. Shouldn't you, y'know, maybe think about giving her a chance and settling down?"

"Like you do with Cindy?" the former king gave him a pointed glare before returning to watch the road.

"Hey, I'm still working on that! You know how she's married to her work now. Poor girl barely gets a wink of sleep with how much she's tinkering in the Hammerhead garage."

"Yeah."

Noctis saw Little Luna staring at him through the rear mirror. Her posture was tense and her small hands were gripping the edge of her seat. The conversation had alarmed her, it seemed.

"Afraid Iris will have to find someone better suited for her. I don't-", he sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand. "I can't give her what she wants." Little Luna's gaze seemed to soften at that. Was she worried he would move on and forget about her? Fat chance. She had been his pillar since they were children and she had continued to support him from a distance, even when his mistakes cost her life.

"Noct, I know you can't put the past behind you. I get it. But everybody deserves happiness and a second chance." Prompto's voice dropped to a quiet murmur. "Even you."

"It's not just about letting go of the past. I'm not the same man I used to be. Even if I could ignore all of this." He vaguely gestured at the darkness around them. "I can't just revert back to that kid she took fancy over Reaper knows for what reasons."

"Yeah, hard to style up your hair without any gel. But you could shave the beard if you miss the good ol' days."

Noctis rolled his eyes, but couldn't keep himself from snorting. He glanced at Little Luna. He wondered what her opinion was on his current look. Probably 'too old'. Did she share Dead Luna's opinions or was she forever stuck as a preteen? So many questions. Should he ever get the chance to ask a single question, he would have to spend an hour just choosing what to ask first.

* * *

"You're late. I'm not even going to ask why your pants have taken a swim." Frankly, Noctis had already forgotten about his drenched clothes. Too much had happened in such a short time for him to remember something as mundane as cold and damp.

"Nice to see you too, Aranea." Noctis hopped off the van. Prompto grinned and waved as he unbuckled his seatbelt.

Aranea had changed out of her usual battle gear in favour of wearing a regular Niflheimian officer's uniform; a black coat with red trimming and a white front adorned with Niflheim's pompous red coat of arms. Once upon a time said symbol inspired fear and despair in the opposing side. Now it was a mere relic of days gone by.

"Did you secure the goods?" Aranea was not one to waste time with idle banter.

"Yeah. Got them right here." He patted the trunk. As Aranea moved to open the trunk, Noctis remembered the corpse he had left there.

 _Shit._

He took a deep breath and counted to three.

"Why do you have a body in the trunk?" Her voice betrayed no emotion, and her piercing grey gaze spared him no judgement.

"Didn't wanna leave it lying around. The least I could do is to bury it."

She lifted one slim brow dubiously, not believing him for a second. "Then why bring it here instead of burying it where you found it?"

Noctis played with his uniform's cuffs. A nervous tell he hadn't quite learnt to keep under control. "Gonna need to make a coffin for it first. Didn't have any tools to make one there."

"Awfully lot of work for a stranger's corpse. Did you know this person, by any chance?"

Noctis glanced at the pale unmoving feet poking from the plastic bag and swallowed heavily. His silence was answer enough.

"You did, didn't you." It wasn't a question.

With a defeated sigh, he lifted his weary gaze to meet hers. "It's Luna's", he admitted.

Her commanding posture faltered. " _The_ Lady Lunafreya's?"

With a solemn nod, Noctis carefully pulled the plastic bag to reveal her.

Aranea didn't even turn up her nose in disgust, instead her eyes saddened with pity. She had seen too many mangled corpses to be disturbed by them anymore. "Where'd you find her?"

"Near Caem, she had drifted to the shore. I hope to give her a proper burial."

"Understood. If anyone deserves a hero's sending, it's her. Carry on."

Prompto opened the van's door to let Umbra out. Little Luna followed the dog and silently watched her surroundings in what Noctis presumed to be fascination. "Oh, hello. Noct, I didn't realise you brought a friend."

So they _could_ see her. Did they recognise her, though? Probably not. Most of her public photos and portraits were from after her ascension to Oraclehood. Even if Prompto had seen a picture of Luna as a child, he doubted he would put two and two together. Little Luna looked like she had been through hell and back again. If the actual Luna hadn't been so mangled and had moved around, he wouldn't have been able to tell which one was the real deal.

"Isn't the dog always with him?" Aranea absently commented. Prompto's brow furrowed in confusion. He glanced at the girl and then back to Aranea, but the dragoon seemed to be looking right through her.

"Well, yeah. But I meant–"

"Is Cid at the garage?" Noctis hurried to interrupt his friend. He wasn't quite ready to give up on his sane status.

Aranea cast an amused glance to the hunter. "Where else would he be? C'mon, those supplies won't carry themselves. Get to it." She marched off, presumably to the command tower where she and Ignis, now her second-in-command, spent most of their days discussing and maintaining order. Ignis had put his diplomatic aptitude to use by taking the role of an ambassador of New Lucis, the united last people of the old Lucis. He was often negotiating trade relations between both the bases, Hammerhead and Lestallium, as well as between New Lucis and other countries, such as Tenebrae and Accordo. Such discussions were mostly done over phone as travelling had become increasingly difficult.

The trains within the continent of Terraverde didn't operate as they used to, thanks to the daemon outbreak in Niflheim. Most train tracks were in a state of disrepair. The lack of hallowed light technology and seasoned hunters discouraged able men to repair the train tracks. Said lights were only available in the largest settlements, such as the newly founded town rebuilt from the ashes of Fenestala Manor.

Airships were a rarity. Only Aranea's two airships remained operational within Lucis. Tenebrae wasn't much better off with only a handful of imperial airships while Accordo had none to its name. Aranea's ships were mainly used to trade between Tenebrae and Accordo and only for the most important goods, such as medicine. Regular trade was done through sea or car traffic.

Gladiolus, on the other hand, had found his calling in construction work. He, along with a dozen other men and women, had built the underground settlement beneath Fort Highwind where civilians took refuge. He had also been part of building a protective wall around a farmland where Iris and Talcott spent most of their days growing crops and tending to livestock. Said mini-fort was under Biggs and Wedge's watchful eyes and under the protection of the remains of Aranea's MT units.

The farmers had managed to grow crops during the first year after the events in Gralea, but as the daylight completely disappeared, they had to get creative to ensure the people wouldn't starve. Through many months of trial and error, Cindy had managed to invent floodlights that imitated sunlight and enabled crops to grow naturally. Iris' crops were in high demand and the farmers were ever looking for more fertile land to expand their fields. That was where Prompto and Noctis came along. As well as being seasoned hunters, the two of them were reconnaissance scouts who surveyed areas for daemon territories, fertility of the ground and in turn, places where new settlements could be set up, food could be grown and advancements could be made.

Noctis could almost see the gears turning in Prompto's head. He shifted weight from one foot to the other uncomfortably.

"So, uh, who's your friend?"

"A survivor I found hiding in the lighthouse." Little Luna didn't seem to even realise she was being discussed. So absorbed was she in taking in her new home. "I'm gonna go take the goods to Cid and show her around. There's something I wanna talk about afterwards."

Prompto's expression immediately sobered. "About the funeral?"

"Yeah." _And Little Luna's identity._ Noctis couldn't keep it a secret forever. He would have to make sure Prompto didn't promote her presence in case they were the only ones who could see her. He had to think of a place for her to spend the night as well. His and Prompto's room came to mind, but he wasn't sure what to think about sharing his bed with her. The floor was out of the question and he wasn't comfortable with the idea of having her stay with strangers, even if she wasn't visible to them.

Noctis took Iris' cloth bag and gave it to the girl. "Mind helping me with this? Got my hands full."

Her expression serious, she took it from him and held it like it was the _Lakshmi_ of Altissia. With a fond smile Noctis threw on his heavy rucksack and checked that his weapons were securely strapped on out of force of habit.

"C'mon."

* * *

Cid was cranky as ever, but Noctis knew by now from the pleased gleam in his aged eyes that he had brought him the correct parts. The old mechanic hadn't paid any attention to Little Luna. She silently stood next to Umbra, her pale blue eyes darting around the garage in wonder. Said garage held several old MA-X Cuirass magitek armours from a time when the base had been under Niflheim control. The hunters utilised the remaining MTs and machines to their best ability to cut the unnecessary human losses. Unfortunately not even Cid knew how to fix the aging machines nor did they have spare parts available.

As the trio left the garage, they passed an MT on patrol. Its gun arm was missing along with its helmet and most of its metal face. Its remaining arm was cut off from the elbow and only few wires poked from the stub. In combat it was no better than a moving target, but in sentry duty it did its job; it could see in the dark and alarm the hunters of any daemon activity or report if any of the hallowed lights went out.

Little Luna's head turned in every direction as she attempted to memorise and map everything in one go. Somehow Noctis found it endearing. He would always cherish the young ones of the garrison-turned-shelter and admire how the children could maintain such an innocence and sense of wonder when the adults saw nothing past the doom and gloom. He dearly wished he could return to those days in Tenebrae.

"Noct!"

The hunter turned around to face his former bodyguard and advisor. It had taken Ignis many years, but the level-headed man no longer relied on a cane thanks to his thorough training and endless source of patience. Had their roles been reversed, Noctis doubted he'd be anywhere near as competent on his own, relying on senses other than the one he was most used to. He would never admit it out loud, but Ignis' determination to overcome his then fatal weakness was a great inspiration to Noctis who struggled to find his place in this post-apocalyptic world without his powers. He was just another man now. Not a king, not a prince, not even a warrior with magical capabilities – just another hunter who could be just as easily felled by a stray bullet or a well-aimed daemon claw. He was as vulnerable as the rest of them and not any more capable of protecting his fellow man than a seasoned Meldacio Hunter HQ's veteran.

"Hey."

"We heard the news", Ignis' soothing accented voice informed him. "How are you fairing?"

"As good as can be expected, I suppose. To be honest, I find myself often questioning my sanity these days." He glanced behind him where he expected to find Little Luna with Umbra. She was nowhere to be found. Iris' cloth bag had been carefully tied to Umbra's back. She was right beside him just a moment ago. He peered beneath the large floodlights, but saw no sign of her dirtied white dress. She couldn't exactly disappear into the shadows unlike the rest of the hunters in their dark clothes. Had she up and vanished? "More often than I'd like to admit", he muttered to himself.

"Quite the chance you found her in Caem of all places", Gladiolus agreed. Ignis said nothing, but Noctis could see from the crease on his forehead and the small twitch of his lips that the svelte man did not believe in such chance. The heavy-built man lifted his large hand and affectionately squeezed his liege's shoulder. "Don't worry. I know someone with a knack for carpentry. I'll talk to him and let him know Lady Lunafreya requires a proper coffin. We won't spare any good materials and make sure she gets the burial she deserves."

Noctis lifted his hand to cover his bodyguard's and solemnly held the older man's gaze. His voice was thick with emotion and gratitude. "Thank you."

With a final squeeze the tattooed man let go of him and glanced at the former king's canine companion.

"Is that Iris'?"

"Oh. Yeah, she asked me to fetch it for her. Have you seen her around?"

"She and Talcott headed to Lestallum to get supplies. They'll probably stay there overnight and return in the morning."

Night. Morning. Such words were meaningless with no sun or daylight. Still, they clung to old habits and used clocks and calendars to keep track of time. Noctis hardly cared anymore. He left when he was ordered to and returned when he could. He slept when his body was ready to collapse from exhaustion and stayed alert the rest of the time. Passage of time meant nothing to him. All that mattered was survival and looking after each other.

"I see. Do you mind taking this to her dorm?"

"Don't wanna get your male ego hurt by having a little bit of colour in yours?" the tattooed man joked.

"You know it. Pink's more of your colour, anyway", Noctis grinned easily.

"Wuss. Hand it here." Gladio took the bag from Noctis and felt it in his hands. "Did you use it as fishing bait or something? It's damp."

"I, er, tripped while I was carrying Luna back from the shore." It was partially true.

"You better hope it dries by the time Iris gets back. She'll snap your scrawny neck in two otherwise."

"Yeah, well, you can thank me later. I know you secretly think she's cute when she gets mad", Noctis gave his old friend a good-natured shove.

"Only when she's mad at someone else", Gladio agreed with a chuckle and shoved him back before leaving the two other men alone.

They stood in silence for a few seconds, before Ignis cleared his throat. "Is there something you wish to discuss, Noct?"

"What makes you think that?"

"I sense you're more tense than usual from the tone of your voice. You're also uncommonly restless. I can hear your boots shuffling against the asphalt." He should've known nothing went past his blind friend. What he had lost in sight, he seemed to make up for with freakishly accurate assumptions based on hearing, smell and touch. That, and Ignis had known Noctis since he was a child. He knew him inside out; every quirk, every habit and every tell.

"I've lost something and I'm not sure where to look." He eyed their surroundings, but still couldn't find any trace of Little Luna. He knelt next to Umbra, hoping the dog would somehow understand his silent plea to find her for him. Instead the canine took advantage of his master's current height to lick his cheek. Noctis weakly laughed and scratched behind the dog's ears. "I'm not even sure if what I lost exists or if it's a figment of my imagination."

"Hm. A curious statement", Ignis commented. "You've lost something that may or may not exist. A memory, perhaps? They can be fickle things."

It slightly unnerved the dark-haired hunter how close the blind brunet hit the mark. A memory indeed.

"You're right."

"So, this memory of yours." Ignis removed imaginary dust from his old Kingsglaive uniform. His uniform was in the best condition of the trio. He took maintaining its optimal condition very seriously. "Does it have anything to do with Lady Lunafreya's recent appearance, perchance?"

"Right again."

"It has been a long time since you talked with her. Are you afraid you're losing memories of your time in Tenebrae?"

He hadn't really ever thought of that. He held each and every memory very close to his heart and couldn't even imagine losing a single one. He wasn't entirely sure what he wanted from Little Luna. To take care of her, perhaps? Make up for past mistakes by returning the love and affection his bride had given him through her actions and letters? Or simply to cling to a physical manifestation of his most precious memories?

"No. Never. Those memories I will carry with me to the grave. They've been with me every day ever since father took me back to Insomnia."

Ignis adjusted his shades. Sometimes Noctis wondered if he wore them for the familiar feeling of having them rest on his nose or to spare civilians from seeing his scars. He suspected it was a bit of both.

"A memory related to Lady Lunafreya, which you're not entirely sure exists." Ignis pondered aloud. "Yet you do not believe you've forgotten any memories of your time with her. Are you referring to the most recent memories in Altissia?"

"No. It's-", he shrugged and belatedly realised Ignis couldn't see the gesture. "Complicated."

"I see."

"No, you don't."

A small smile curved the tactician's lips. "No, I do not."

Noctis gave Umbra's head a final pat before standing up to his full height. "Guess I'll just have to keep looking."

Ignis hummed. "Best of luck with that. Let me know if you're any closer to finding what you seek."

"I will."

* * *

Noctis had searched everywhere for Little Luna. He had even gone to the infirmary where Luna's body had been taken temporarily in wait for the burial. He had taken a small scrap from her torn dress and offered it to Umbra in hopes that he would manage to locate the elusive girl with it, but even that had not worked.

Tired and defeated, the raven-haired hunter made his way back to his and Prompto's shared accommodation which resided underground along with the other denizens' homes. It was as modest as the rest of the barracks; a small room with nothing but a single nightstand, a bunk bed and a wardrobe. There was only enough space to move around the bunk bed. Umbra hopped onto the end of his bed and settled down for the night. They had missed supper and would have to wait till morning for food. Dining hours were strict to keep everything going and organised. The garrison had ten thousand people to feed on a daily basis. It would've been absolute chaos had Aranea not put her foot down on the matter and made sure everything went smoothly and according to plan.

Prompto was lying on the top bed and fiddling with his camera. Entertainment was sparse. Both men had lost their old Insomnian smartphones after two years of service and had had to replace them with regular Niflheim standardized cell phones. Prompto still brought up King's Knight occasionally and all the memories they had playing the game. Sadly, their new phones were only good for phone calls. Texting was unadvised to avoid jamming the phone lines. The lines had to be open for long-distance communications between New Lucis and the other countries at all times. Walkie-talkies were given to each hunter, while MTs used a special code signal to report their patrol results to the main computer.

"Welcome back, buddy."

"Sorry I kept you waiting." Noctis stripped himself off the weapons, scarf and hunter's vest before kicking off his old trusty prince's boots. They had endured surprisingly long. He supposed he had his father to thank for that. King Regis had made sure both his son and the Crownsguard wore clothing made of durable high-quality materials. Noctis changed out of his damp hunter's shirt and pants. Neither he nor Prompto had proper sleepwear. They and the other denizens of Fort Highwind had long since learnt to be ready around the clock in case of a bold daemon attack. Larger hordes had dared to attack the fort even with the hallowed lights. Fortunately such occasions were rare, but it had instilled a sense of vulnerability and vigilance in each one of them. Always be ready. Always be alert.

"Hey, no prob. You wanted to talk about something?" The freckled blond plopped onto his stomach to peer down at Noctis.

"Yeah. About that girl."

His clear blue eyes lit up in interest. "She seemed nice. Did you show her where the showers are? She looked like she's been rolling in dirt the past month."

Noctis dropped his gaze to his hands. "I, um. I kinda lost her."

"Well, it's a big place. Maybe one of the girls took her under their wing?"

"Maybe." That seemed too optimistic even by Noctis' standards. How could a little girl just vanish when he turned his back for a second? Granted, she _was_ fast when she wanted to be, but he doubted she would leave him like that without letting him know. At first he had presumed she went back to Dead Luna to make sure she was being treated well and with proper respect, but she had been nowhere near the van or the infirmary. He had backtracked to the garage, but Cid had seen no little girls. He had checked everywhere on the surface level. It wasn't out of the question that she might be at one of the underground levels, but why would she go there on her own?

"Prompto. I'm gonna say something that will probably make you think I'm going crazy, but just bear with me, okay?"

Prompto blinked at him curiously and rested his chin to rest on his folded arms. "Okay."

"It was Luna."

As expected, he didn't register what the raven-haired hunter was implying. "Huh?"

Noctis sighed, rubbed his face and lifted his head to look up at his best friend. "The girl is Luna. As in the same Luna that is currently very much dead. Don't ask me how that works. At first I thought I was hallucinating or having some weird visions, but then you saw her, too. And when I lost sight of her, it wasn't because of her running off on her own. She just vanished the second I looked elsewhere. Kinda like what Gentiana used to do."

"You said you found her in Caem?" Prompto's voice was heavy with disbelief.

"Yeah. She showed me where the corpse was. Wouldn't have found it otherwise. It was in knee-deep water."

Prompto let out a low whistle. "Wow. Dude, I don't know what to say. Seems unreal to me."

Noctis chuckled humourlessly. "Oh, believe me. I've been questioning reality a lot for the past six hours."

"Maybe she just wanted you to save her from being eaten by wildlife and now that that's taken care of, she decided to leave?"

Noctis lay back on the bed and tossed his arm over his weary eyes. One of Umbra's ears was pointed towards the conversation in half-interest. "I guess. Was hoping to have a chat with her. She didn't talk back at all when we were alone in Caem."

"What would you talk about? I mean, she's just a kid. Can't go burdening her with too heavy stuff."

"I'm not too sure about that. The last time I saw her she was a child. I was, too. When she gave me the ring, she appeared to me in a vision. We were both in Tenebrae, surrounded by countless sylleblossoms and she was there. Right in front of me. As young as I remember her from our childhood." His voice trembled. He had never told anyone about the vision and how much Luna's final farewell had affected him. "She was a child, but then she changed into an adult. I don't think this Luna is different. She reacted when I called her by name and she seemed to understand all the things she should've considered as too 'adult'. She even seemed a little worried when you brought up Iris during the car drive."

"I completely forgot she was there to hear it! I hope I didn't upset her or anything." Prompto hopped off the bed and set his camera on the nightstand. "Think we'll see her again? I never got the chance to show her the photos we took for her." He grinned at the sullen man.

"I swear, if you're even entertaining the thought of taking 'sultry pictures' of her, I'll put you in a box and have you shipped back to the MT factory", Noctis grumbled.

"I know you wouldn't do that to me, buddy!" Prompto singsonged. "I'm surprised you even remembered all that. I promise I won't take any weird pictures, but you can't deny me a portrait! C'mooon, we don't have any pictures of her", he begged.

It was true. The only picture of her he had seen was the portrait next to her wedding dress in Altissia. He wanted a picture of Luna as a memento more than he dared to admit. It already seemed so weird and it bordered on creepy; a man in his thirties fantasising about having a picture of a twelve-year-old girl. He was beginning to wish Little Luna had taken the appearance of how she was in Altissia. Perhaps she thought it was less painful for him to see her the way he remembered her instead of how she was on the day she died.

"Fine. One picture. If we'll ever see her again, that is."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Note: This is story was originally written to be a music fic, but since FFdotnet doesn't allow links, I will just leave the raw text. If you want the 'full experience', I have this story on AO3 with links and pictures. Just Google Haprilona ao3 and you'll find the story under the same name!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

Noctis woke up to the sound of air raid sirens blasting. Hurriedly he scrambled off the bed, but tripped thanks to his sheet-tangled feet. Cursing, he kicked off the bothersome cloth and hastily pulled on his boots and vest before strapping on his Engine Blade and Cerberus. The walkie-talkie clipped to his hunter's vest buzzed as hunters exchanged daemon location coordinates.

The door to his room burst open. A wild-eyed Prompto stood there with a half-eaten ration bar in his hand.

"Noct, we're under attack!" He disappeared as quickly as he had appeared.

"I can hear that", the alarmed hunter muttered under his breath and ran after his friend.

Civilians rushed further down to the lower levels and the bomb shelter. The sounds of crying and screaming for loved ones' names drowned under the sirens' wailing. Noctis pushed through the sea of people and up the stairs. He could hear the rattling of a machine gun coming from outside.

He saw MTs running across the wall, their unsettling red eyes staring into the darkness as they sent coordinates to the main computer which in turn forwarded them to the hunters. A group of armed men dubbed the 'elite melee force' and also known as Unit 1 stood by the gates, ready to engage. Among them was Gladiolus with an improved Force Stealer in hand. Ignis was within the central command giving out orders. His background as royal tactician had come in handy during chaotic raids such as this. His knowledge and past experiences with the different types of daemons was crucial when defending the fort.

Prompto stood at the wall, a gun in each hand and with night vision goggles on. Noctis hurried up the stairs to his friend and briefly clasped his shoulder in greeting.

Aranea's commanding voice crackled from the walkie-talkies. ' _Unit 2: dozen arachnae and bombs coming from the west. Stand by until you are within range. Unit 3: ready the big guns. We have red giants heading your way. Fire at will._ '

"Copy that. Unit 2 standing by", Noctis replied to his walkie-talkie. He took Cerberus from his back and rested the sniper rifle's barrel against the top of the wall. He could clearly see the different elemental bombs floating towards the fort even without the aid of his scope. The machine gun kept firing from the other side of the fort. He could distantly hear the clinking of bullets bouncing back from armoured skin.

' _Unit 3: stop wasting goddamn bullets on the giants! Only advanced machinery works on those bastards. Take care of the small fry with the regular guns!_ ' Nothing went past Aranea, it seemed.

' _C-copy that!_ ' By the sound of it, they had a greenhorn on the machine gun. Just great.

The sounds of manic squealing and screaming grew in volume as the pack of arachnae approached the wall.

' _Unit 2: open fire!_ '

"Here we go", Noctis muttered and closed one eye to aim through the scope. An arachne fell. Then another.

"Noct, get the bombs! They're growing too fast!" Prompto shouted over the sound of shooting.

Noctis turned to face the bombs and shot. The bullet pierced the closest bomb, but the daemon refused to back down and only increased its size further.

"Get down, it's gonna blow!"

Noctis shot one last bullet through the enormous bomb before throwing himself to the concrete floor. The bomb shrunk and fell to the ground with a low moan, its flame extinguished. An arachne took the chance to climb up the wall without having to worry about bullet rain and jumped on the defenceless hunters who were still recovering from the false alarm.

With the Engine Blade in hand, Noctis struck the disgusting creature's side. The daemon screamed in outrage and attacked. He parried the blow, but the arachne was too fast for him. One of its powerful spider-legs disarmed him with a quick strike. Seeing its prey stripped from his only line of defence, the feminine creature made to lunge at him again. Noctis barely managed to evade by jumping sideways, the pointy ends of the spider-legs grazing his vulnerable side. The arachne was already at his back before he got on his feet, one of its legs pressing him against the hard floor and feminine clawed hands reaching to slash at his vulnerable occiput. He would've likely died had Prompto not opened fire and killed it.

Gasping in relief as the pressure from his back lessened, Noctis picked up his weapon and staggered to his feet. "Nice save!"

"It's nothing." Prompto had already returned to lean over the wall and killed any daemons attempting to float or climb up the wall.

A resounding explosion shook the ground.

' _Several bombs managed to penetrate the north gate. Unit 1 engaging._ ' It was Gladio's voice.

"Oh no", Prompto breathed.

"Concentrate on the fight, Prompto", Noctis barked. The blond snapped to attention and continued to fire. Goblins that had climbed the wall from the northwestern corner took the gunmen by surprise and swarmed them. Noctis rushed to engage them in melee combat and tried to keep them occupied long enough for the hunters to recover and reposition themselves. The walkie-talkies buzzed, but Noctis couldn't concentrate on what was being said.

' _Aranea, more giants coming from the north. They mean business this time._ '

' _Copy that. Ignis, is our newest toy ready yet?_ '

' _Cid's making final adjustments. We'll be ready in five._ '

' _Make it two. We're running out of time!_ '

From the corner of his eye, the former king could see Aranea jumping high up in the air and diving down on an iron giant. Her magitek lance pierced the armoured hide and ended the horror film reject in its tracks.

Noctis was struggling to keep the overwhelming number of daemons under control. "Prompto, little help here?"

"One Prompto Special coming right up!" He removed Gravity Well from his back, aimed and fired. The small magitek vacuum sucked in the pack of goblins. Noctis took out a magic flask from his pocket and tossed it. The goblins screeched in agony as they burst up in flames. The magical fire melted their sickly skin until nothing but charred bones remained. The stench of burnt flesh was enough to make a lesser man faint.

"Sweet!" Prompto exclaimed and turned back to empty another clip on the wall-climbing arachnae. The tide was slowly turning in their favour. The western wall was nearly clear from daemons.

' _The cannon is loaded, Commander. Ready to engage._ '

' _About time. Unit 1, fall back to the courtyard. Unit 2, assist Unit 3._ '

Noctis waited until his entire unit had left before making his way to the northern wall. As he was about to leave his post, he spotted something outside the fort. Pausing, he looked through his scope. It couldn't be…

"Luna!" His shout drowned under sounds of screaming, guns firing, daemons roaring and sirens blasting.

 _She's going to get hit by the blast if I don't get her to safety!_

Without giving it any more thought, he tossed a rope ladder over the wall and climbed down. Little Luna stood motionlessly in the darkness. Her dirtied white dress and pale skin seemed to almost radiate with faint light. Most daemons were engaging Unit 1 within the fort, but few stragglers remained behind and spotted her. She didn't even lift her gaze as three imps squealed in delight, their dim yellow eyes gleaming with bloodlust. The closest one jumped on her and wrapped its bony fingers around her throat. She let out a terrified scream as if suddenly realising the danger she was in. His blood ran cold.

With an enraged roar, Noctis thrust his blade through the harassing imp. He dislodged the sword from its small body and cleaved its head off. Black blood stained the grass.

"Luna, get behind me!" The girl scampered to her feet and hid behind the older man.

Another imp shot magical draining beams, but Noctis easily blocked them and struck down the daemon along with its remaining friend. His walkie-talkie buzzed.

' _Fire the cannon!_ '

Before he could register what was said, a shockwave knocked him over and he knew no more.

* * *

 _I need to get him to a doctor, he's bleeding fast!_

I'm sorry I tricked you.

 _The infirmary is already packed and we have our hands full with the previous lot._

What do you mean?

 _But he's the leader of Unit 2!_

I needed to get you away from the ronins.

 _I don't care if he was the bloody king of old Lucis! He is no more important than the men in there._

I didn't even notice them…

 _Noct! Noct, buddy, can you hear me? He's freezing!_

They snuck inside from a crack one of the red giants made.

 _His heart is slowing down. We need to get him to warmth. Help me carry him. Aranea's fetching Ignis._

Thank you...

 _Gladio, do you have the thermal blanket and medical supplies?_

You need to get better, Noctis. Your friends still need you.

 _Got them right here._

Can't I stay here with you?

 _Take off his clothes. Prompto, I need you to be my eyes and help me clean his wounds._

Why would you want to stay here?

 _Just need to wrap the wounds now..._

I miss you.

 _Now all there is left to do is wrap him in the blanket and make sure he stays warm._

I'll be there for you when you wake up.

 _Will he be all right?_

Promise?

 _He should be, but best to have a doctor examine him. Afraid there's only so much I can do without vision._

I promise.

* * *

Noctis slowly woke up to the pungent scent of herbs and potions mixed with the stench of blood and vomit. He was lying on a hard surface. His whole body felt heavy and numb from an unnatural cold. He was chilled to the bone, but at the same time he felt feverish and his face was burning up. The bright lights above him chased the remaining sleep from his sore eyes, causing him to wince in discomfort. He must've been taken to the infirmary. Groaning, he tossed his arm to cover his aching eyes.

A shadow loomed over him and shielded him from the lights. Noctis carefully lifted his arm to peek at the newcomer. A blurry image of Prompto's worried face stared back at him. Slowly his frown melted into a wide grin and he turned to the two men behind him. "Ignis! Gladio! He's awake!"

"Thank the Reaper", he heard Ignis breathe in relief.

All three came to hover over him.

Brown strands poked out from Ignis' usual styled-back hair and the clouded shades sat crookedly on his nose as if he was too distracted to notice it. His scarred lips looked a little swollen – probably from a brief reunion with Aranea after the battle.

Gladio's clothes had burnt holes from close combat with the bombs and red giants from before. The fine hairs on his tattooed arms had burnt off and the worst burns were covered in cooling gel patches. His jaw was clenched in worry, but his hazel eyes were full of relief seeing his liege alive and well.

Prompto's eyes and nose were red and puffy. If Noctis squinted, he could make out dried tear stains on his freckled cheeks. Fresh tears were already welling and glinting in his blond lashes. His lips quivered as he tried to keep a smile on. His hunter's vest was dirty and his bare arms were covered in scratches and bruises. His night vision goggles were damaged, presumably from when they had jumped for cover from the bombs.

"How are you feeling?" Ignis gently lifted the blanket covering his torso to check the bandages with his fingertips.

Noctis' voice was wheezy and weak. "Like I've been stomped over by a rampaging behemoth and received a kiss from Shiva herself." He was already out of breath. Gasping, he clutched to his painfully constricting chest.

Gladio huffed and helped the younger man down a warm drink mixed with a potion. The Leiden spices did little to hide the potion's bitter taste, but Noctis was glad to note that the chest pain was fading until it was nothing but a dull throb. "You're lucky you're alive. Had you been any closer to the gate, there wouldn't have been anything left of you to put together. The hell were you doing outside the fort, anyway?"

"Thought I saw a civilian", Noctis ambiguously mumbled.

"Did you hit your head? How would a civilian get _outside_ the fort? Was probably just one of those creepy samurai daemons. From a distance they appear human enough."

A clicking of heels alerted the men to a new presence.

"To be fair, had he been at the wall instead of outside, he would've been ambushed by the ronins that sneaked in from the east." Aranea approached the quartet with a barely noticeable limp. Her famed dragoon's battle gear carried a stench of burnt human flesh and a peculiar stale smell Noctis had learnt to associate with spilled daemon blood. It had seen better days; the remains of her ruined leg guard were barely hanging together. While her armour was of the finest quality all of Eos currently had available, even it couldn't withstand the brutal might of a red giant's humongous blade. She sported several cooling gel patches for burns she had suffered on her unprotected abdomen and chest. "Good to see you among the living, Highness."

"Likewise. I take it we won?"

The dragoon smirked. "Wouldn't be here if we hadn't."

"Thought as much."

"The walls took quite the beating and we're currently working on repairs. No civilians were harmed during the conflict, but we lost a good number of hunters." She closed her eyes briefly in a silent prayer. "All good men and women."

Noctis lowered his gaze. Even if it wasn't directly his fault, he still felt every death heavily on his shoulders. Had he not been selfish, all of this might've been avoided. Had he done what Ardyn wanted, those hunters might still be alive.

"I know that look." Aranea interrupted his self-piteous thoughts. "No use moping over something you can't change. Just concentrate on getting better. We need all the hunters available - we're not out of danger yet."

"Will do."

She gave him a final pat on his uninjured arm before leaving.

An awkward silence hung over the four men. Noctis looked around him. A curtain separated him from the other patients, but he could hear a quiet chorus of groaning echoing in the cold room. The daemon raid had taken a lot out of them.

Gladio cleared his throat. "Iris and Talcott are coming back. When the MTs sounded the alarm, I told them to stay in Lestallum for another day. Should be safe to return now. They'll be happy to know you're still in one piece."

Noctis absently hummed in reply. The blessed numbness from sleep began to fade. The skin on his face, arms and hands felt like it was on fire. He licked his dry lips and winced when his tongue touched the raw skin of his split lower lip.

"Wonder what made the daemons try raiding this place", Prompto thought aloud. "I mean, they're supposed to be scared of the lights, right?"

"Correct", Ignis agreed. "There were unusually many of them in one place at the same time. It was as if they were organised and driven by a common purpose."

Gladio crossed his tattooed arms and leant his back on the nearby wall. "Might be Ardyn. He likes to toy with us. He's the one who's behind all of our problems."

"He sent just enough forces to make us struggle, but not enough to wipe us out." Noctis' voice was hoarse and his expression grim. "That son of a bitch." It went without saying that Ardyn's daemon assault was meant as a mere reminder of his failure, but it was also a sign of impatience, a demand for him to fulfil his calling and grant the immortal man satisfaction.

Noctis' stomach growled mournfully. He hadn't eaten anything for over a day.

"Want us to go get you something to eat, buddy? The kitchen's using a flexible ration serving schedule thanks to the raid."

Noctis offered a grateful smile. "You're the best."

"Aw right! Let's go get all of us something to eat before the best parts get taken!"

The three men took their leave. Noctis carefully sat up in order to not open any healing wounds. The skin on his arms was raw and red from healing frostbites. His right hand which hadn't had the protection of a glove was wrapped in a bandage. Curious, he carefully unrolled it to reveal frozen and hardened fingertips. Disturbingly bluish and black blisters covered his pinky and ring finger while his index finger was bright red and swollen - and it itched, badly. Not able to resist the temptation, he scratched the waxy skin. The fragile skin tore open. He hurriedly wiped the fresh blood with the bandage.

A passing nurse came over to him, kindly cleaned the mess and applied salve before rewrapping his hand in a fresh bandage and moving on to check on the other patients. As the itching subdued, he let out a sigh of relief. He leant his elbows on his knees and looked around the bleak room thoughtfully. The infirmary had been a laboratory before it had been repurposed. The tables posing as beds were highly uncomfortable, but he supposed most of the patients were pumped so full of morphine that they didn't even notice the discomfort.

The sound of nails scratching against the concrete floor brought the former king back to the present from his musings. Umbra sat down next to his bed and wagged his tail in greeting.

"Umbra, what're you doing here? Thought they wouldn't let dogs inside."

There weren't many pets in Fort Highwind. A few hunters had canine companions, but most civilians had to leave their pets behind when moving here. There was simply no room for them. Only hunters were allowed to have pets and only if said pets were trained to hunt or fight.

Umbra stood up on his hind legs and leant against the bed. It was then that Noctis noticed the red notebook sticking out from the case that was specifically made for it. His heart beat rapidly as he pulled the book from the case with his healthy hand and flipped to the most recent entry. On the next spread after the pressed flower he had found after Luna's death in Altissia was a sticker depicting the mythical being known as Carbuncle. Underneath the sticker it read in Luna's elegant handwriting: ' _Get well soon!_ '

It was as if she was still alive.

A tear fell from his eye and stained the notebook's page. He managed to wipe his eyes before more fell and ruined the inked words. Umbra let out a sympathetic whine.

She still looked after him.

With a shuddering breath, Noctis carefully turned around and let his warmly clad feet touch the cold stone floor. Slowly, he stood up and supported himself against the wall. He pulled the thermal blanket from the bed and with some slight help from Umbra he managed to wrap it around his shivering frame. The silver-hued material rustled with every movement he made.

He needed to find Luna. Umbra took the notebook between his teeth and dutifully followed after the hobbling hunter. The few nurses he came across were too busy checking the patients to pay him any mind. All of them looked tired, like they hadn't had any rest since the sirens first sounded the alarm.

He halted when he caught his reflection in a mirror above a sink. His skin looked as if someone had tried to peel him like an orange. Dark and bloodied open cracks of skin blemished his forehead, cheek and chin. His chapped lips were a faint shade of blue and his ear tips were as dark purple as his frostbitten fingertips. The skin on the tip of his nose was literally peeling off - and it smarted like hell. Whatever it was that he had been caught in must've been some sort of high-potency blizzard spell. He'd have to ask Cid about it later.

Noctis found Luna in a body bag in an old storage room-turned-morgue. There hadn't been any need for morgues when the base had been under Niflheim command. The only casualties they suffered were machines which could be dismantled to pieces and thrown to scrap metal. Now the room had two dozen fresh bodies from the daemon raid waiting to be buried.

Noctis opened the body bag. Luna's single lifeless eye stared blankly past him.

"I got your message."

He dropped his hand to caress her unmarred cheek. It was cold and damp to the touch just as he had expected.

"I don't know how you're doing what you do, but… thank you. Not just for saving my life, but for being there for me." He lifted his hand and gently combed her messy bangs with his fingers to cover her missing eye. He sensed someone standing behind him. He zipped the body bag shut and turned around.

Little Luna stood silently next to Umbra. She had put the red notebook back to its holster.

With great effort, Noctis knelt down in front of her and lifted his hand to push her dirty blond hair aside and reveal her pale neck. Bruises from where the imp had attempted to strangle her tainted her skin. "Does it hurt?"

She shook her head.

Chuckling, Noctis dropped his hand to take her small hands in his. Her skin was slightly chilled and its texture was coarse and similar to cardboard. Chilblains covered her fingertips and toes, but she seemed otherwise unaffected by the blizzard blast. His body must've shielded her from the worst of it.

"Still as talkative as ever."

Her only reply was a coy smile. As he attempted to stand up, she supported him until he was safely back on his feet. She slipped her hand into his and led him back towards the infirmary with Umbra in tow.

* * *

By the time his friends returned to the infirmary with food, Little Luna had disappeared, but he wasn't worried anymore. She had promised to stay by him while he had been knocked out cold. He liked to think he could contact her whenever he wanted through the notebook, even if he wasn't sure how Umbra would deliver it, considering he didn't seem to acknowledge Little Luna's existence. There was also the matter of him not being able to write with his dominant hand for the time being. He wasn't about to ask Prompto to write for him.

They ate and talked in hushed voices as to not disturb the other patients. According to the nurses Noctis would be out of bed within ten days, perhaps even sooner. His wounds were healing unusually fast. Ignis figured it might have something to do with the Lucian royalty's blood, but Noctis knew there was nothing left of the Astrals' or the Crystal's blessing in him. Only Prompto cast him a knowing look, but said nothing.

The next day Iris and Talcott arrived and wasted no time in visiting their friend. Iris fussed over him like a mother hen and did her best to make his stay in the depressing environment as pleasant as possible. She even brought him a handheld radio she had purchased from Lestallum. It was left on to play on low volume. She had happily beamed when receiving plenty of praise and thanks for her deed from the other patients. The music calmed down even the most restless patients and helped their healing process.

Iris made it her job to visit Noctis every morning in the infirmary and deliver breakfast for him before going to the farm with Talcott. She happily chattered to him about her visit in Lestallum, how her crops were fairing and how she was proceeding with mending his old prince's fatigues. While Noctis was truly grateful, he silently wished she wouldn't bother with the clothes. Most of the denizens of Fort Highwind weren't aware of his former status and he preferred to keep it that way. He had failed his people and he wasn't ready to shoulder the accusations and anger that were sure to follow if his identity was to become known.

Within eight days he was allowed to return to his and Prompto's room.

His friend had had the sheets and their single rug washed for his triumphant return. A single elegantly carved wooden vase filled with sylleblossoms stood on the nightstand.

"Guess who paid me a visit", he grinned at the dark-haired hunter.

"Cindy?"

Prompto's hand shot up to cover his heart. They both knew Cindy didn't have time to visit her 'Paw-paw', let alone Prompto. "Now that's uncalled for!"

Noctis grinned in return and patted the freckled man's shoulder. "Were you actually around when she came?"

"Yup! I showed her the pictures we took near Caem. She really liked them."

Mortified, Noctis cleared his throat and retrieved the vase before settling down on the edge of the bed. The flowers were freshly picked, which under normal circumstances would have raised the question how she could've brought them from another continent to here in less than a day, and on foot no less. He had stopped questioning logic long since he first met Little Luna. Rules of nature didn't seem to apply to her. Her mere existence was an unexplainable anomaly. The flowers were as vibrant as he remembered and they brought much needed colour to the bland grey room. Their sweet smell rekindled memories from a time when sunlight still existed in the world.

"And guess what! She let me take her picture!"

Noctis glanced up at the excited blond in interest. Prompto flopped down next to him with his camera.

"Didn't have time to check the picture yet myself. Wanted to get the bed ready for you."

"Thanks, by the way." Noctis affectionately bumped shoulders with his friend.

"Hey, no prob." Prompto grinned as he browsed through the pictures. His expression fell as he found what he was looking for. "Huh?"

"What is it?" Noctis peered over Prompto's shoulder.

"I can't find it. There's just a picture of the wall."

Curious. He had seen Little Luna's reflection in the van's rear mirror. And it wasn't like only he could see her. How was it that Prompto hadn't been able to capture her on camera?

"Maybe she's camera shy?" Noctis lightly jested.

"Didn't seem like it. Did a cute little pose for it and everything." He shrugged and deleted the picture. "Maybe next time I'll get you both on camera. Might work then."

* * *

"Prompto, c'mon. I'd like to get this over with before Luna mistakes me for her grandfather."

"There in a jiffy!"

Noctis drummed his fingers against the van's wheel impatiently. He had been bedridden for only eight days and he was already itching to get back into action. Most of the hunters injured in the daemon raid were still expected to recover for another three weeks. He knew he was privileged, but being stuck between four walls had slowly driven him towards insanity. His friends had taken turns on looking after him, which had helped him pass the time, but at the same time he wasn't allowed to leave the infirmary. Umbra had guarded his sleep until the nurses requested him to be removed for hygienic reasons. The next night Noctis had briefly gained consciousness and seen Little Luna's silhouette sitting in the faint light on the edge of his bed and swaying to the quiet music coming from his radio. He didn't recall sleeping so soundly for a long time. In the morning he found Iris sitting in Little Luna's place and he wondered if his tired brain had conjured up the pleasant image from a subconscious wish.

"I'm leaving with Umbra if you don't hop to it!"

The door on the van's passenger side opened as Prompto rushed inside. The stench of gysahl greens nearly made Noctis gag.

"What's up with the extra equipment?" Noctis held his nose and eyed his friend's vest pockets that bulged with greens. A belt hung from his waist with several pouches. Noctis could see a bandage roll sticking out from one of them.

"Iris got a call from old Wiz." Prompto's voice was heavy with worry. "One of the chocobos from the farm freaked out and fled while Talcott was leaving through the gate."

"Guess we better find her, then. We can leave the daemon scouting for later." Noctis drove the van to the recently repaired north gate where an old all-purpose MT unit halted them for inspection before opening the gate for them.

"Shouldn't take long with Umbra helping us." Prompto did his best to stay positive. He glanced to the backseat where the dog sat. The canine woofed affirmatively.

"If there's anything to find", Noctis replied grimly. "The daemon activity has increased in Maidenwater."

Prompto's blue eyes widened as countless horror images ran through his overactive mind. "Don't say that!"

"I'm just being realistic."

"Nuh-huh. You're jinxing it."

Noctis shook his head, but kept his gaze on the bumpy and poorly maintained road. His reflexes kicked in when a figure became visible under the hallowed headlights. With a startled gasp, he hit the brakes and steered the van past the roadblock.

"What was that?" Prompto rubbed his neck where the seatbelt had dug into his skin from the sudden jerk.

Noctis checked the wing mirror, but saw nothing in the darkness. "Stay here. I'll investigate." He took his Engine Blade from the backseat and switched his torch on. Carefully he crept to where the van tracks had went off-road.

The shaft of his torch illuminated the unmoving figure's pale skin and ragged clothes. Noctis sighed in relief.

"It's okay. It's just Luna", he called back to Prompto before lowering himself to his knees and toning his voice down. "I could've run over you. What were you thinking?"

The van's door opened and Prompto made his way towards them. "Everything cool?"

Without any warning Little Luna grabbed Noctis' hand and pulled him to his feet.

"H-hey!"

She was surprisingly strong for such a petite creature. His hand was held in an iron grip as she dragged him away from the van. Noctis could hear Umbra barking and Prompto struggling to keep up with all of his equipment weighing him down.

"Where are you taking us?"

They ran for a good fifteen minutes. When they reached the forest's edge, she slowed down and pulled Noctis back before he could stumble past her. He looked behind him and saw Prompto's torchlight move faintly in the distance. Umbra had remained behind with him and watched his flank for any surprise attacks.

An insistent tug on his sleeve brought Noctis' attention back to the girl. She lifted a finger to her lips to signal silence. Her pale blue eyes were serious as she beckoned him to quietly follow. They crawled on all fours through the thick vegetation. Noctis could hear distant growls of sabertusks and squeals of goblins. Beasts and daemons were fighting over the ownership of the hunting grounds. Prompto finally caught up with them and collapsed on the forest ground with a loud wheeze. Little Luna visibly tensed along with Umbra. She zipped unnaturally fast to Prompto's side and covered his mouth with her small cold hand. He stiffened in surprise; it was the first time he was in physical contact with what he had speculated to be a ghost of some sort.

Noctis hovered over his friend and informed him of the lurking danger nearby using hand signs. Nodding, Prompto quietly turned to lie on his stomach before kneeling up to crawl after the two. Little Luna took point and led the men past the beasts and daemons to a giant's kettle. She pointed down and disappeared into the darkness. Noctis removed a coil of rope from his belt and tied its other end to a nearby pine tree. He was about to climb down when Prompto placed a hand on his shoulder and halted him.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" he whispered. "I mean, we don't know what's down there." He peered nervously into the nature-made hole.

"She wouldn't risk having me drive over her if it wasn't important", Noctis argued.

"Uhh, Noct? She's kinda dead, remember? I don't think you could actually hurt her."

Noctis' gaze fell from his friend to the rope in his hands. "She was injured during the daemon attack. She denies feeling any pain, but I'm not about to go out of my way to find out if she can fall to a sword." He tied the rope around his waist and checked if it was secure. "You can stay here with Umbra if you prefer."

Prompto didn't appear any happier with that suggestion. "With a pack of beasts a stone's throw away?"

"Or you can follow me."

The agitated blond ran a hand through his messy locks. "You know how much I hate deep dark places."

Noctis cast his friend an impish grin. "Think about the treasure."

"I bet all the treasure's been pillaged by now. If there were any, there'd be some kinda superboss guarding it!"

"I'll go check it out, then. Watch my back. I'll tug the rope twice when it's safe."

Prompto quietly groaned in protest, but helped his friend lower himself down.

The cavern wall was slippery from a recent downpour. Noctis lost his hold a couple of times, but the rope kept him from plunging to his death. He cursed as his boot slipped and he hit his hip painfully on the hard rock wall. Regaining his hold on the rope once more, he found his footing and continued his slow descent into the abyss. He could breathe freely again when his feet finally found solid ground. The torchlight felt harsh for his eyes in the heavy darkness.

"Luna?" His whisper was loud in the enclosed space. He untied the rope from his waist, placed his hand on the damp rock wall and followed it. Just as he spotted Little Luna's dirtied pale feet, he heard a weak _kweh_. He hurried to the kneeling girl's side.

The chocobo's feet were bent in an unnatural angle. He suspected she had broken them from the fall. She lay on her side, crushing her right wing underneath her full body weight. The chocobo was missing feathers on the neck. Angry red claw marks peeked underneath a strip of dirtied white cloth. Noctis dropped his gaze to Luna's dress. It was only then that he noticed that its hem had shortened drastically since he last saw her in the infirmary. It was closer to a long-hemmed top than a dress. Modesty seemed to be the last of her worries. The strip of cloth had managed to staunch the bleeding, but it was nearly soaked through.

"Wait here." Noctis went back to the rope and pulled it twice.

" _Noct?_ " Prompto's voice bounced from wall to wall until the echo was an incoherent noise.

No good.

Noctis activated his walkie-talkie. "Prompto, I need you down here. Luna found our missing friend and she's not looking good."

The transmitter crackled with static, but he could make out something resembling a ' _coming_ '. He hoped the noise hadn't alerted the beasts and daemons.

The bird whimpered pitifully. Little Luna had pulled the chocobo's head to rest in her bare lap. She silently stroked her bloodied feathers.

"It's gonna be okay, girl", Noctis murmured.

A sharp yelp alerted Noctis to his friend's presence. He hurried back to the gap and managed to catch Prompto just in time as he fell the last few feet. The wind was knocked out of his lungs from the impact.

"Oof!"

The two men lay motionlessly for a second as they recovered from the fright.

"So this is what it feels like to be saved by a prince", Prompto wheezed.

"Get off me." Noctis pushed his friend and greedily gulped in air. "Did they hear you?"

"Don't think so. Think they took their fight deeper into the forest."

Noctis helped his friend on his feet and noted the rope was missing from his waist. "Did you even tie the rope around you?"

"I did! I'm just not good with knots", Prompto mumbled and averted his gaze as he scratched the back of his head.

"I'll have Gladio give you a thorough survivalist's training course when we get back."

"In my defence I didn't sign up for extreme sports. I'm a scout, not an archaeologist!"

A raspy _kweh_ reminded Noctis of what was at hand. Without needing any encouragement from his friend, Prompto rushed to the chocobo's side and began to unpack his first aid kit.

The two men worked in silence. They changed Luna's rags to a fresh bandage and attempted to reset the legs to their natural angle, but even with the two of them they couldn't do it. Her legs were simply too thick and big. She thrashed and warked in pain.

"What're we gonna do, Noct?"

"She's way too heavy. We can't pull her up." He rubbed his sweaty face in frustration. He knew there was little they could do. A chocobo with a broken leg had little hope for survival. Iris would be devastated. Prompto began to pace as he tried to brainstorm for a solution.

"Maybe if we could tie the rope around her and the other end to the van-"

"Prompto." The dark-haired hunter interrupted him. "The van can't get through the bushes and trees. And there's the beasts to think of."

The freckled man's shoulders sagged. "Are you saying we have to-", his voice trailed off and his eyes filled with grief as he gazed upon the suffering bird.

"Yes." Noctis took the discarded cloth ripped from Luna's dress and tied it around the chocobo's head to cover her eyes. Little Luna took a few steps aside to give Noctis a clear shot. Prompto stood in stunned silence as his friend took one of his handguns. Noctis had left his Cerberus in the van. "I'm sorry."

Prompto averted his eyes as Noctis cocked and aimed. The gunshot nearly deafened the two men as its volume doubled in the enclosed space. With a final cry of pain, the majestic bird slumped down. The bullet hole appeared clean from the front, but the back of the bird's head was a mess. Blood had splattered on the rock wall behind the chocobo as well as on Little Luna who had been standing too close. Dread twisted Noctis' guts as he saw her with fresh blood covering the remains of her dress and coating her unhealthily pale skin and tangled hair. She remained completely unmoved by the violence and only gazed back at him in mild curiosity.

"W-we should leave." Noctis visibly shivered and handed back the gun to Prompto with a trembling hand.

* * *

Neither Iris nor Wiz took the news well. The chocobo had been an offspring of Iris' first race chocobo. Seeing her hazel-brown eyes shine with tears made Noctis feel even worse. Maybe he could have done something more if he had stopped to think for a moment longer. He awkwardly held Iris and patted her back, unsure of what to do. Old Wiz had sat down and leant his head against his palms. As an animal lover himself, Noctis sympathised with the old man. But it was different for Iris and Wiz. They lived with these animals and worked with them on a daily basis. To them it was as if they had lost a family member.

Hesitantly Noctis pulled away from the young woman and affectionately tugged at her ponytail. Her hair had grown as long as her brother's. She had tied the top half of her hair up in a ponytail while letting the lower half drape over her shoulders. Her face was devoid of the childlike roundness of her teenage years and replaced by a strong feminine jaw and cheekbones. She reminded him of how Mrs Amicitia had looked back when he was barely fifteen and visiting Gladio's home for the first time. Iris was still as lively as she had been as a teenager, but she had toned down her mannerisms. Her girly skirt and shirt had been replaced by a farmer's overalls. Underneath she wore Gladio's old Crownsguard tank top which she had modified to fit her much slighter frame. She had visibly gained more muscle on her arms from the heavy labour and looked more similar to her brother than ever. There was no mistake the two came from the same family.

She weakly smiled at him and wiped her eyes.

"Thanks for ending her suffering, Noct. I can't imagine how horrible it would've been if she were to starve to death or if a beast had followed her down there."

"Sorry I couldn't do more."

Noctis spotted Little Luna sitting next to Wiz. He could see her bare upper thighs peeking out underneath the ripped hem of her dress. She was still covered in chocobo blood. A chill ran through him and he had to resist a shudder. She looked lost and confused as she stared at her stained hands and picked at the dry blood coating underneath her fingernails. Her white skin looked paler than ever in the hallowed light of outdoor lamps and he could clearly see the bruises on her neck.

Iris lifted her hand as if to touch Noctis' arm, but withdrew when she noticed he was looking past her. She followed his gaze. Noctis held his breath and studied Iris' expression for any signs of recognition. She turned and furrowed her brow in confusion.

"What are you staring at? You look like you've seen a ghost."

He turned to check his wrist watch, only to remember he never wore one. Prompto was the one who cared about passage of time, not him. "I, uh, just remembered there's something I have to do. I'll see you later!" He hurried back to the van.

Closing his eyes, he leant his back against the car. What was going on? Didn't she realise she was freaking him out with her strange apathy towards her appearance? It was one thing to have a loved one's friendly ghost following you around, but completely another when said ghost looked like nightmare fuel.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when Prompto touched his shoulder.

"Dude, it's just me! No need to test your hunter reflexes on me."

Noctis ran his hand through his long ebony hair and took a few calming breaths. "Sorry. Guess I'm a bit jumpy today." He slid down until he was sitting on the ground, his back resting against the van's wheel. Prompto settled down across from him.

"You've been a little shaken even since you shot the chocobo."

Noctis absently picked at the grass and kept silent.

Prompto bit his lower lip and restlessly fumbled with his hands. "There's nothing else we could've done for her. That's what you said yourself."

"I know." Noctis tossed the blades of ripped grass.

"Then… What's up?"

Noctis' hand found another patch of grass to rip. "I keep seeing her."

Prompto chewed the inside of his cheek as he recalled the cold skin of a ghostly hand covering his mouth. "Luna?"

The dark-haired hunter nodded without lifting his gaze.

"Thought you wanted to see her."

"Not all bloodied and dirty. She looks like a rape victim."

With a thoughtful hum, Prompto crossed his arms and eyed the ground between them. He kicked the sole of Noctis' boot as an idea dawned on him. "What if you take her to shower? And if we ask Iris to make her a new dress?"

"How would that work? She can't see her and it'd be super weird if I cleaned her."

"Well, if nobody else can see her then it won't matter, right? I could guard the door while you do it."

Noctis sighed and bumped the back of his head against the van in frustration. "Still need to find her a new dress."

Prompto pulled a blood-soaked rag that might've once been faded white from his vest pocket. "Could just mend her current dress with this and have it washed?" It was the cloth Noctis had used to cover the chocobo's eyes. He hadn't even noticed Prompto retrieving it.

"Didn't realise you knew how to."

Prompto awkwardly chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "I don't, but Ignis does. He might teach me how if I tell him it's an emergency."

Noctis crossed his arms. "Okay, fair enough. What will she wear while you mend and clean the dress?"

"Iris finished mending your shirt, right? She could wear that."

The image of Little Luna dressed in his old skull-printed shirt brought a slow smile to his face. It was big enough to reach her knees.

"Fine. That's a sound plan, I guess."

"'Course it is. I came up with it." Prompto grinned and dusted his hands off as he stood up. "I'll go get Umbra."

"Guess I'll go find Luna, then." He got up on his feet and backtracked to the barn. Wiz had left to tend to the chocobos while Iris had gone inside. Little Luna had disappeared. Maybe he could try contacting her through the notebook Umbra carried around?

"Is it too much to ask for you to stay put?" he mumbled and kicked a rock from his path.

He found Little Luna waiting for him between Umbra and Prompto. His friend looked disturbed as he awkwardly made small talk to the silent girl. Noctis rubbed his temple in exasperation. Figures.

* * *

"Remind me, how did you talk me into this again?" Noctis grunted as he carried a bucket filled with a sponge, a hair brush, a towel, his mended skull-printed shirt, a soap bar and even a schnapps glass filled with shampoo stolen from Iris.

"Oh, you know. Besides referring to your fear of horror film girls, I might have threatened to tell Luna about the time when you drew hearts with Noct+Luna all over your school notebooks and how you practised your best cursive by writing her full name over and over."

Noctis ducked his head in embarrassment, silently glad Luna was waiting in the shower room instead of walking with them. He had seen name carvings of various couples in the public school's restroom and ended up doing the same in a less permanent way. It had been oddly satisfying at the time, somehow. He had never been one to give voice to his feelings.

The men entered the empty shower room. It was the middle of the night and the next person returning from sentry duty shouldn't be arriving for another hour or two. Little Luna sat patiently on a wooden stool and poked her finger through a hole near the torn hem of her dress. The cloth was practically tearing itself apart.

Noctis awkwardly cleared his throat and set the bucket next to her.

"All right. We need you to change out of your clothes." He unfolded the towel and held it in front of her to preserve her modesty. He turned his head away and closed his eyes for extra measure. Prompto held back a snicker. The dirty remains of the dress fell to the floor. She kicked it and sent it flying right into Prompto's face. Her small hands covered her open mouth and her normally glazed eyes were wide open in embarrassment and surprise.

A small, barely audible snigger escaped her. Noctis opened his eyes and snorted when he saw Prompto fumbling to get the dress off his head. Soon his clear laughter joined Little Luna's muffled giggles.

Prompto pulled the dress from his head. His hair reminded Noctis of a chocobo now more than ever. "Yeah, all right. Very funny."

Noctis grinned at the blond and turned back to the girl in front of him. Immediately sobering when he remembered her nude state, he lifted the towel further up to shield his vision.

"Uh… So. How am I supposed to be doing this without coming across as a creep, exactly?"

"You could start by turning the shower on."

Noctis kicked off his boots and made his way to the shower stand. He turned the tap and yelped when cold water poured on him, soaking his vest. Prompto scratched his head and watched his friend fumble around.

"You're getting the towel wet."

"You're not helping!"

Little Luna crossed her arms over her adolescent chest and eyed at the older men in amusement. With a roll of her eyes she turned the water's temperature to warm and took the soap bar and sponge from the bucket.

"Hey, I think she's managing on her own."

"You better not be watching her, Prompto!" Noctis growled, but firmly kept his head facing away from the girl.

"I'll, uh, get the dress fixed!" the flustered man called and left.

Luna switched off the water and began to scrub her filthy skin. Noctis squeezed his eyes shut to make sure he wouldn't even accidentally peep at her. Only the steady sound of sponge-on-skin let him know he wasn't alone in the shower room making a fool of himself. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if someone was to walk in on him now and they could only see him kneeling next to the shower stand and holding a towel in front of him? Then again, maybe that would be better considering what the alternative was. Maybe he could claim Luna was his daughter? But a father wouldn't act so flustered in front of his daughter, would he? His nanny hadn't made a big deal out of seeing him in his birthday suit.

A poke on his side snapped his eyes open. He glanced down at the girl who held the sponge in her left hand as an offering. Puzzled, he took it from her and watched her turn around and gather her hair over her shoulder to expose her back. _Oh._

Not having enough hands, he dropped the towel and scrubbed the dirt and blood from her back. Tiny scratches and cuts covered her skin. It was as if Little Luna had dived through a thorn bush and escaped goblin claws while she was at it. For such an unnatural being, she sure seemed to be affected by her surroundings. Noctis set the sponge aside and took the small glass and emptied its contents on her head. With tender fingers he washed her filthy hair.

"I'm sure Iris wouldn't mind even if she knew. I mean, if she could see you, I wouldn't have stolen it in the first place. Kinda hard to explain why I need her shampoo of all things if I'm not going to use it myself", he rambled. "Would be easier if she did see you and I could've just asked her to do this for me."

Her wiggling toes along with clenching and unclenching hands implied discomfort. He rushed to correct himself.

"Don't get me wrong. I don't mind doing this. I mean, I do. That is, I want to help you and take care of you, but it kinda feels wrong. Just a regular geezer washing a little girl. Totally normal. Nothing wrong with that. Nope. Nothing at all."

He turned on the water and rinsed the foam from her hair and skin.

"All right. All nice and squeaky clean." He picked up the discarded towel and wrapped it around her small frame. It was big enough to cover her whole body. She gave him a sunny smile in gratitude and hugged his waist. A low chuckle escaped him as he stroked her wet hair. "Guess it's been a while since you felt clean."

She rested her cheek against his stomach and closed her eyes.

"If you promise not to disappear on me for a day, I could show you the handheld radio Iris brought me. Could see if we find a song or two to dance to." It was so strange yet heart-warming at the same time to suggest something as silly as dancing to a dead person.

 _To hell with logic_ , he thought. _I'll take what I can get._

"I still remember, you know. You said you loved to dance and that you would've danced with me had my leg not been hurt. You danced with Ravus whenever you could and you didn't let the height difference hold you back. Kinda like us now."

Little Luna let go of him and took a step back before nodding and grinning. He couldn't help but return the grin. After drying her hair, Noctis helped Little Luna into his skull-printed shirt. As he had speculated, the shirt engulfed her whole body; the neckline revealed her small shoulders and the baggy sleeves reached past her elbows. She did a little twirl as her seal of approval.

Dead or not, it was definitely the Luna he remembered from his time in Tenebrae.

* * *

"You can keep switching the stations as much as you like. Won't do a thing."

Little Luna pouted.

"I did tell you there's only the one radio station in Lestallum broadcasting. We're stuck with whatever they're willing to play for us."

Setting the radio back on the nightstand, she took a single sylleblossom from the wooden vase before sitting down next to him on the bed. She hid the vibrant flower in his vest's inner pocket and turned to stare at the wall and kick the air with her feet restlessly.

Umbra lay in his usual spot. The notebook and its casing had been removed from him for the night.

Not wanting to ruin her night, Noctis took the notebook in one hand and wrapped his other arm around her. It reminded him of the times when his own father had read him stories. He had felt warm and safe tugged under his arm.

"Wanna know a secret?"

Her eyes instantly lit up as she eagerly stared up at him.

He flipped the notebook open to the last entry. "That Carbuncle sticker you got me was pretty fitting. I never told anyone, but I saw him in my dreams when I was sick. And when I woke up, my dad had left a Carbuncle figurine to guard my sleep."

The droning of the radio hosts came to an end and a traditional Accordian waltz began to play.

"Sounds like our cue." Noctis put the book aside and stood up. Little Luna hopped to her feet and lifted the oversized shirt's hem to curtsy just like she had been taught in the manor. With a humorous gleam in his eye, Noctis bowed in return, took her small hand in his and placed the other around her skinny waist. She in turn stepped on his booted feet to reach him better while holding onto his arm to keep herself steady.

It was utterly ridiculous and yet the former monarch couldn't recall having this much fun in years. Their dancing was closer to a slow dance than a waltz since there wasn't much room to work with in his and Prompto's quarters.

Little Luna's recently brushed hair swung with each movement. Her normally sickly pale skin seemed healthier than ever and even though the bruises on her neck were still visible, they didn't stick out nearly as badly as before and her cold skin didn't feel as icy anymore. Noctis could barely remember the fact that she was deceased. She looked and felt so real. He could even smell her soap and shampoo whereas before he hadn't smelled anything; no dirt, no blood, nothing. She had yet to utter a word to him, but her facial expressions and body language were more expressive than ever.

The door creaked open, but neither of them paid any mind. Prompto quickly switched on his camera and snapped a photo. He had barely expected to see Luna, let alone his best friend, smiling and laughing as the unlikely pair swayed to the music. The blond hurriedly closed the door behind him and placed Luna's mended dress over the bed's headboard before taking more pictures. This time he'd have her photo for sure.

* * *

Prompto had danced with Luna through a few livelier Lestallumian songs before the radio hosts continued on about the state of the world. At that point Noctis had switched the radio off. It was nearing three in the morning. They would have to wake up early in order to not miss breakfast. His friend had already passed out and slept soundly in the top bunk. The dark-haired hunter hadn't even gotten the chance to argue about having Luna take one of the beds for herself. Noctis supposed it wasn't so bad; he had already seen her nude, more or less, and doubted he could do anything worse. What was sharing a bed with a prepubescent girl?

He pulled the blanket up to Little Luna's chin and let his arm cradle her small frame against his side. Her head rested against his chest while her blonde crown lightly tickled his bearded chin.

Perhaps he was looking at this from the wrong perspective. True, they were betrothed once upon a time and true, he had loved her like a husband loves his wife. But things were different now. It was almost as if he was experiencing paternal love for the first time. Noctis had felt something similar when he first set his eyes on Talcott and his cactuar collection. He had been so eager to fulfil the child's wish and gathered all the cactuar statues he had come across, just to please the boy. Sort of what he had done tonight; he had danced and told Little Luna stories when normally he wouldn't consider doing either, not even to the fort's other children. He would merely watch from afar and smile to himself as the young ones played with what little they had available.

It was nothing short of a strange feeling, but it warmed his heart and brought him a sense of peace. Turning his head, he placed a soft kiss on the girl's temple. She looked up at him with an unreadable expression. As Noctis brought a hand to caress her cheek, he noticed something strange.

There were seams at the sides of her head; as if an additional layer had been placed on top of her face. He traced the barely noticeable edge. It felt like she had a life-like mask glued to her face. His short nails scratched at the seam and gently attempted to remove the outer layer. Suddenly her small hands shot up and pushed his hand off the seam. Her glassy eyes were wide with panic.

"Luna?"

She vanished before his very eyes. The shirt sagged as the body inhabiting it disappeared. He sat up in surprise and lifted the shirt. He could faintly smell the scent of her soap from it.

The mended and washed dress had disappeared from the headboard as well.

She was gone.

* * *

 _A/N: Sorry I took a while._


	3. Chapter 3

_**Note: This is story was originally written to be a music fic, but since FFdotnet doesn't allow links, I will just leave the raw text. If you want the 'full experience', I have this story on AO3 with links and pictures. Just Google Haprilona ao3 and you'll find the story under the same name!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

Noctis sat on the stairs leading up to the wall and sharpened his Engine Blade with a whetstone.

Today was the annual market day which meant merchants from both former Niff bases – Fort Highwind and Meldacio Stronghold – as well as Tenebrae and Accordo would put up booths in Lestallum. The fort's inner and outer yards were filled with folk of all ages. Over five thousand people were itching to get out of the depressing environment to enjoy a day filled with bright colourful lights, lively music, good food and fun, or to sell their wares and make a profit. Vans and buses were overloaded and the noise level was nearly unbearable, which is why Noctis had decided to take refuge by the south wall to avoid the north gate's hassle.

Prompto and Gladio were helping Iris and Talcott put up their booth. Noctis had offered to go with them, but received a message through a walkie-talkie telling him to remain within the fort. Aranea was no doubt about to put him to work again.

He checked his sword's blade and deemed it sharp enough. His walkie-talkie buzzed.

' _Noct, meet me at the garage. Cid and I have something to discuss with you._ ' It was Ignis.

"Copy that."

He tied his sword to his belt and briskly made his way past the masses. During times like these he wished he could warp; he was not a fan of crowds of any size.

"About time ya came. I ain't getting any younger", Cid complained in his typical manner. Noctis took comfort in that; it meant the old man was still in good enough health to complain. He feared the surly mechanic didn't have many years left in him. His health was gradually worsening to the point where he couldn't stay out of bed for longer than a few hours at a time.

Talcott did his best to assist the elderly man whenever he could, but the young man already had his hands full helping Iris and Wiz at the farm. Prompto had offered to take Talcott's place at Cid's side, but had been bluntly turned down. Cid hadn't been too pleased when he first witnessed Prompto making advances at his granddaughter. He wasn't quite convinced the freckled young man was up to his standards. And every potential suitor knew that it wasn't Cindy's standards they had to meet, but her grandfather's.

That had been some years back, and Noctis believed that were Prompto to renew his offer, he wouldn't be turned down a second time. Cid had been not-so-subtly probing information from the former king about his best friend. Noctis had made sure to mention his skills with machinery and paint a positive picture of Prompto's characteristics; amazing gunner, kind-hearted, great sense of humour, passionate and committed towards the people he loved. Cid took an interest in the blond's capabilities, but had huffed at the mention of humour – something about having had enough of that with Reggie's quirkiness. In the end when Noctis pointed out how ready and eager Prompto was to be of service to the man he considered a living legend, Cid had given up and grumbled about his current full-time caretaker being a ditz and needing a replacement.

Now if only Prompto had the balls to approach Cindy without needing Noctis for moral support.

"Not getting any younger? Could've fooled me."

"Speak up, boy! Ya know I'm deaf in one ear."

Noctis smirked to himself. Yes, he knew. And he would take advantage of the fact whenever he could. It was quite satisfying to talk back to Cid without having to worry about offending him in the process.

"So, what's this all about?"

"The Commander has requested us to take one of these elemental cannon prototypes to Meldacio Stronghold", Ignis replied.

"Aren't you too busy to leave the fort?"

"Actually, I have other business to attend to while there. I am merely taking this chance to spend more time with you while performing my duty simultaneously."

Noctis grinned. "Efficient as always."

He approached one of the cannons. Attached to it were several see-through objects that reminded him of drum magazines. Inside the magazines were crystal cartridges filled with raw elemental energy similar to the flasks he carried on his person. He recognised some components as parts taken from the MA-X Cuirasses as well as the junk he had retrieved from Caem. He couldn't really tell much based on its appearance alone. That was more of Prompto's area of expertise.

"So, is this the cannon they used during the daemon raid?"

"The one that nearly killed you, yes." Although he put up a calm and collected front, Noctis could tell from the way the muscles around Ignis' throat tightened that the tactician had been extremely worried for his health.

Not wanting to wallow in what could've been – he was an expert at that by now – he quickly changed the subject. "How many rounds do those magazines contain?"

"Exactly one hundred", Cid proudly declared. "That oughta ensure them Meldacio folks are supplied fer more than one invasion and keep the fiends in check."

"Impressive", the hunter complimented. Cid grunted nonchalantly, but Noctis didn't miss the smug turn of his lips.

"Now get off yer asses and push 'er to the trailer. Cor's waitin' fer y'all."

* * *

It had been many years since Noctis had taken the wheel while Ignis sat in the passenger seat. After Regalia's service came to an end, the four men had trekked all the way from Gralea to Tenebrae to lick their wounds. It had been especially painful for Ignis who had yet to learn to move about unaided. Aranea had offered to fly them along with a hundred homeless Tenebraean civilians back to Lucis. The men had attempted to reclaim the Crystal when rumours spread of its new location in the Citadel of Insomnia, but they had stood no chance armed with only regular Meldacio Hunter HQ provided weapons and without Noctis' powers.

After their humiliating retreat from Insomnia, Noctis had parted from his companions. He needed time to reflect and to come to terms with the reality of his situation. He had failed his people and annulled his forefathers' and Luna's sacrifice to nothing. He needed to find a way to make things right.

' _I don't expect you guys to understand, but I need to do this on my own._ '

' _No way am I leaving you, Noct! You're my best friend!_ '

' _Prompto, I need to find a way to get my powers back, but I have a duty to my people. Please. Ignis, Gladio. Take care of the civilians while I'm away._ '

' _Don't take too long. My sister will get gross otherwise._ '

' _We'll be waiting._ '

Four years Noctis had searched for a way to reclaim his powers. He revisited each tomb, but nothing helped. He poured over old tomes in Accordo's libraries and researched history in hopes of finding a solution. After those long, lonely years, he found himself at the gate of Fort Vaulleroy where Aranea had built a safe haven for refugees. Civilians from as far as Galahd and Calcano inhabited its dull grey cement walls. It took some persuasion until the former Niflheimian Captain and Lucian King came to an understanding and agreed he would stay as long as his identity remained hidden from everyone within and without the fort.

An exaggerated inhale beside him brought Noctis back from his musings.

"New fragrance?"

"Huh?"

"You smell not unlike Iris." There was no accusation in his soft timbre, just a neutral remark.

"I do?" Noctis brought his collar to his nose, but all he could smell besides his usual odour was the sweet scent of the sylleblossom hidden in his vest. Shrugging, he took a swig from his water canteen.

"Have you told Gladio of your courtship?"

The water went down the wrong way. Noctis pulled the van to a stop and waited until the violent coughing had subdued.

"I take that as a 'no'", Ignis calmly stated and patted the younger man's back.

"Take it as a 'no, I'm definitely not dating Iris'", the hunter managed to correct between hacks and coughs.

"I sincerely hope you're not implying you had a one night stand."

Noctis sputtered. "What? _No!_ I just borrowed her soap when me and Prompto ran out."

Ignis smirked to himself. "If you say so."

"You don't see me commenting on _your_ scent. If anyone here smells like a girl, it's you."

"Yes, well, that's to be expected when the Commander has given me permanent nightly order of 'get to bed or drop dead'."

Noctis grinned. "Oh, so you have no say in your relationship? Ouch."

Ignis kept his tone indifferent, but Noctis could tell by the way he fingered his gloves and cleared his throat that the older man was slightly embarrassed. "She does like to remind me of her superior rank from time to time."

They had never outright announced it, but it was common knowledge that the blind brunet shared quarters with the bossy dragoon. They had been together for four years more or less. Sometimes Noctis wondered if Ignis had any secret desire to become a father. Aranea was forty and didn't have many years left before her biological clock stopped ticking altogether. Noctis hadn't even dreamed of becoming a father after his wedding was permanently cancelled – not until he had held Little Luna, freshly scrubbed from dirt and blood, in his arms. Now more than ever he yearned for a life he could never have.

While Prompto hadn't been able to successfully catch Cindy's attention due to her inhumanly tight schedule, Gladio had been popular among the ladies since day one. He hadn't found his special someone yet, but it was only a matter of time. He went through lady friends faster than Noctis went through gun polish.

Even Iris, who still hoped to turn his head, had dated other men. He had heard from Talcott that the brunette had had a long-distance relationship with a Lestallumian man before said man perished in a daemon attack while on his way to visit her. They hadn't been together for more than few months. That was two years ago. He was glad Iris had taken friends and family with her to Lestallum to keep herself distracted from painful memories.

Sometimes Noctis wondered if Iris truly loved him that much or if she was merely in love with an idealised version of him. She hadn't seen him at his worst and wasn't aware of how deep his scars ran. She had always seen him as The Crown Prince and like most girls, she dreamed of a fairy tale ending in the arms of a prince who would sweep her off her feet and ride them into the sunset on a white chocobo. He liked to think she had outgrown such childish fantasies by now. He had no crown. Only the ring of the Lucii kept in his breast pocket was a proof of his lineage.

The van's CD-player played traditional Tenebraean folk songs in a low volume. Prompto had found the undamaged record in one of the deserted Coernix gas stations during their reconnaissance scouting. There weren't many working music players in the fort. Noctis jealously guarded this rare gem from the other inhabitants, because it was one of the only links he had to Luna and his childhood.

"Haven't heard these tunes in a while", Ignis commented. Most people knew Ignis had a radio in the command tower, but what they didn't know was that Aranea herself had it bought for him specifically as a token of her affection. Noctis knew; he had been the delivery boy.

"Don't think Radio Ravatogh has a record of it."

"Ah. That would explain it."

Even with the radio station's impressive music library, repetition couldn't be helped. Hardly any new songs were recorded and no new instruments were made. The only music available were songs from the past or few remaining street artists who tended to gather large crowds in Lestallum and Altissia. Singing and drums were the only available instruments along with guitars with missing cords.

"So, what business do you have in Meldacio Stronghold?" Noctis absently eyed the gleaming eyes of nocturnal beasts they passed by. The hallowed headlights discouraged them from attempting to attack the van and its occupants.

"I'm to hire seasoned hunters to teach each civilian above the age of eighteen living in Fort Highwind basic self-defence and training with arms. After the recent raid we are sorely outnumbered. I am hoping to get a couple of hunters to stay permanently, but for now I have to concentrate on training a new batch. According to the Commander, the Marshal has whipped the hunters into top shape since he repurposed Formouth Garrison.

"He'll whip my ass if he sees me."

"Undoubtedly."

Noctis pulled the van to a stop in front of the stronghold's gate.

"Inspection!" a man wearing the standardised Meldacio Hunter HQ's uniform called.

* * *

For all its similarities, Meldacio Stronghold felt like a completely different civilisation. The population slept above the surface in a repurposed garage opposed to the underground dwelling of Fort Highwind. There were no MTs or other independent machines in sight. Everything was operated and performed by humans. A large training ground was occupied by hunters. Even children and the elderly were sporting the brown vests and carrying weapons.

Noctis pulled the van to a stop in front of one of the garages and stepped out. The scent of machine oil mixed with Leiden spices hit his nose in full force. The stronghold's main exports were spices, herbal and medical plants, wildlife meat and cotton according to Ignis. There had even been talk about reopening the Balouve Mines and clearing it from pests with the hallowed lights and Cid's elemental machinery technology.

"Glad ya'll made it safe." The two men turned around towards the familiar voice. Dave, now sporting strands of grey amidst his brown hair from years of stress and worry, made his way past a grim looking group of armed teenagers towards the two Crown citizens. Pronounced eye bags hung beneath his grey eyes and permanent worry lines creased his forehead. "Been a while."

"Sure has."

Dave offered Noctis his hand in greeting. Dirt coated the older man's fingernails and his hands looked like they required stronger chemicals than just hand soap to get them clean. He smelled of smoke and machine oil and his hand felt coarse to the touch.

"We sure could use that cannon. The Marshal will be pleased."

"Is he about? I have something I wish to discuss with him", Ignis interjected.

"He's overseeing the training. I'll let him know ya'll arrived."

"'Appriciate it", Noctis offered a final smile before turning back to Ignis while Dave quietly talked into his walkie-talkie.

"Nervous, Noct?"

The hunter chuckled. "You bet I am. That man is not easily pleased and I'm pretty sure he's not happy with me being missing in action for half a decade."

"Closer to a full decade considering you had the Commander keep your location hidden even from the Marshal."

"Don't remind me."

A stern man with a katana holstered on his hip approached the duo with swift long strides. His short brown hair was the same military-cut style it had been a decade back, but the colour had turned a shade or two lighter and his hairline had moved closer to the top of his head. The creases on his forehead and around his eyes were more pronounced and only highlighted his discernible displeasure. His brows were creased in a scowl and his lips were stretched to a thin, unhappy line. Were it any other man, Noctis would've described him as looking royally pissed. Not even Ignis' disapproving frown could compete with that of Cor Leonis.

"You're late." Cor's steely blue gaze scrutinized Noctis. "I expected your arrival an hour ago."

Ignis stepped forward. "Apologies, Marshal. We were stuck in traffic due to the crowds leaving for Lestallum. It is the market day, if you recall."

"A wise man plans ahead and leaves with ample time to spare." His eyes never left Noctis'. The younger man did his best not to squirm and shifted his weight in discomfort. "And what is your excuse?"

"I-", he began, but found it difficult to speak through the lump that had formed in his throat. "I needed time to come to terms with everything that's happened; Dad, Luna, the daemons…" Revenge against the Empire had long fuelled his perseverance, but when it had been robbed from him due to the daemon outbreak, he had lost his sight on what truly mattered. Prophesies, darkness… All vague concepts that he had no true knowledge of outside his contact with the Starscourge virus as a child. The Empire was something tangible and something he could hold responsible for the loss of his home, throne and love.

"For ten years?"

Noctis couldn't help flinching at the unforgiving tone. Ignis took pity on him and cut in: "Four. His Highness has been working under the Commander for the rest."

"Moping in seclusion and hiding beneath the Dragoon's skirts is ill-befit behaviour for a king. You have a duty to your people first and foremost."

Noctis lifted his chin in defiance and held the Marshal's hardened gaze. "I made a terrible mistake in Gralea, I know that now. I've tried to put on the ring, but the Lucii couldn't or wouldn't grant me their power. The Astrals have forsaken me and my only link to the Six-", his voice trembled slightly as he remembered the corpse he had fished from the ocean. "My only hope to make things right is waiting for burial in the fort's morgue."

A familiar burning sensation behind his eyes warned him of the incoming tears, but he didn't allow them fall. He wouldn't show weakness in front of the man who had no sympathy for sob stories. All of them had to deal with loss.

"I've worked every day since to make sure my people have a safe place to stay." He pointed at the hallowed floodlights. "If it weren't for me, Cindy wouldn't have been able to recreate the lights and this settlement along with all the others wouldn't be as safe as they are now." His voice exuded quiet determination. "I may not be the King of Light the prophecies foretold, but I _will_ give my all to rebel the darkness and keep my people safe with the skillset that I have."

Cor's scowl softened to a frown. "There is the resolve I had hoped you still harboured." He clasped the younger man's shoulder, something resembling approval in his gruff voice. "And you shall further help your people today. You will accompany me to the Balouve Mines. If we are to arm every man and woman, they will need weapons. And to make weapons we need the resources the mine has to offer."

He left Noctis little choice, but if a trip to the mines was all it took to be forgiven in the Marshal's eyes, he would gladly do it. "That all?"

"Don't get cocky. Our previous attempts to reclaim it from the daemons haven't been successful. Miss Aurum is preparing a new weapon for us to utilise, specifically made for this operation. She still needs time to fine-tune it. In the meantime I would have you take the cannon out for a test run."

"Marshal-", Ignis began.

"I've handpicked three of my finest trainers to accompany you back to the Fort once we're done in the mines."

 _'That Cor… Always three steps ahead of us'_ , Noctis mused.

Noctis walked back to the van to unload the cannon.

"Ignis, how do I do thi-?" He glanced around him. The blind brunet was nowhere to be seen. "Now where did he go?"

* * *

"Do you have the goods?"

"Got 'em right here. What about you? Do you have the cards?"

Ignis pulled out fifty ration cards from his pocket. While gil was still used, fresh vegetables were far more valuable. Ration cards were used by the people of Fort Highwind to partake in daily food provisions to ensure there was enough for everyone and no-one would take more than their share.

The shady Meldacio merchant let out a low whistle. "That's ten more than last time you checked in."

"Consider it a bonus after six years of partnership."

The merchant signalled his accomplice to push forward a cart filled with labelled boxes that read either 'Leiden pepper' or 'Quality cotton'.

"Pleasure doing business with you, Scientia. Your need for quality coffee will keep me and my mates' families sustained for years to come!"

"Tell your men to unload the cargo to the trailer once my companion unloads the cannon and is out of sight. And be subtle about it."

"You got it."

Ignis adjusted his clouded shades. A gesture the merchant had learnt to signal impatience or nervousness. "And be sure to put them in the back so my companion won't find out."

The merchant stuffed the ration cards in his coat's inner pocket. "Doesn't Highwind ever wonder why you buy so much pepper and cotton whenever you visit us?"

"I need only remind her of the blandness of the food-quality and how fast she goes through her capes when battling red giants."

"I dunno, man. I have a feeling she might be looking through her fingers, just 'cause it's you."

Ignis said nothing and briskly left before the man could voice more inane comments.

* * *

No matter how many times Noctis had ridden the ancient elevator, it didn't get any easier. He hated having to depend on something so unreliable. It creaked forebodingly as it slowly descended the men deep underground.

Dave fingered the nozzle of his flamethrower. As eager as the hunters had been to put the new cannon to use and clear the mines from fiends for good, they had to take the highway and use something less destructive. The last thing they needed was to accidentally destroy one of the walls holding up the structure and get buried alive.

The backpack of Dave's incendiary device consisted of three cylinders; the first two similar to a traditional flamethrower for holding compressed, inert propellant gas and flammable liquid, while the third had a tortuous tube made of crystal filled with magical fire in its raw form. Should he run out of the more potent firepower, he'd still have the regular version as a backup.

Cindy never ceased to impress Noctis with her creations. He could definitely see what appealed to Prompto – besides her rather obvious, uh, _assets_. Cid had sent his granddaughter a copy of the blueprints for the cannon's cartridges to be used in different weapons, such as the newly made flamethrower. It was still a prototype and hadn't been tested, but she was confident it would do the job.

Noctis twirled one of the crystal flasks between his fingers nervously. If the mines were anywhere near as dangerous as the last time he had been here, they'd be tightly pressed.

A heavy-built man with a traditional Galahdan hairstyle – Libertus, if he remembered correctly – elbowed him. "Put that away before you cause an accident." Noctis rolled his eyes and made the mistake to glance Cor's way. It took only a stern glare from the Marshal to make him obediently shove the flask back in his vest pocket. He opted to tap the hilt of his sword instead. Ignis sighed in irritation beside him, but Noctis paid him no mind.

Umbra's ears were flat against his head and his jaw was tightly clenched shut. He put up a brave front, but it was obvious he wasn't keen on going so far underground. _Mines are no place for a dog_ , Cor had said as much. Noctis had ordered the canine to stay outside, but for some reason he had ignored him, cantered to the lift and refused to budge. One of the battle-hardened veteran hunters, Richard, had threatened to shoot the dog himself if the canine turned out to be a liability. Safe to say, Noctis had a thundaga flask with the hunter's name on it just itching to be used.

There were seven of them in total in the mine cage, excluding Umbra; Noctis, Ignis, Cor, Dave, Libertus, Richard and William. It was a somewhat tight fit, but they managed just about. The hallowed spotlight the size of his nightstand cast a pale blue light over their grim faces. William had taken the task to carry the heavy torch on his back.

Noctis hadn't had much chance to get to know the two hunters. What they seemed to lack in manners and charm, they most likely made up for with skills at arms. They had been personally trained by Cor, after all. Both carried a revolver, a flare gun, knives and a short sword.

Libertus, on the other hand, didn't appear ill-willed, merely reserved. He wasn't wearing the browns and greys of Meldacio Hunter HQ; instead he wore what appeared to be a modified Kingsglaive uniform. A breastplate in the shape of the symbol of Galahdan province protected his front. His face was covered in several pale scars which Noctis suspected were received from the numerous battles he had fought in the name of Lucis. Two holsters hung from his belt, each meant for a kukri of a different size.

Noctis shifted and turned to face the Galahdan. "You were part of the Kingsglaive?"

"Aye. What of it?" He warily eyed the former king.

"Where were you the day your king died?" Noctis knew it served no purpose to open old wounds, but he truly wanted to know what had really happened during the destruction of Insomnia. The only eyewitness he had spoken with was Iris.

"Escorting the Lady Lunafreya outside the city", the Galahdan gruffly replied.

His heart skipped a beat.

"Really?"

The glaive crossed his arms. "I don't have any reason to lie. The kings of Lucis are dead and I have no-one left to answer to."

Noctis could feel Cor's cool gaze on the back of his head. "I see."

Libertus' suspicion seemed to fade when he saw the hunter's shoulders hunch. "I can tell you wanna ask me something. Spill."

Noctis inhaled and exhaled slowly to calm himself. He had never expected to find another link to the past in a daemon infested mine of all places. "How was she? Was she hurt during the escape?"

"She got few bumps and bruises, but she made it out in one piece." His eyes crinkled in good humour. "I could tell she was a fighter. She might not have carried a weapon on her, but she sure knew how to make the best out of a sticky situation. Reminds me of someone else I knew." He fingered the smaller kukri with a fond smile.

"Thank you."

Libertus' brow lifted in question.

"For keeping her safe", Noctis specified.

Richard snorted. "You her secret ex-lover or something? Too bad it's late to cash-in on that scandal."

Noctis' hand was already removing the Engine Blade from his belt by the time Libertus butted in: "Knock it off, Dick."

With a final creak the lift reached its destination.

"I won't have any spats in my squad. Spare your aggression for the daemons", Cor barked. "The fiends have made their nest deep within this tunnel. Be on your guard."

He took point, hand readily resting on his katana's hilt. Noctis followed the Marshal's example. William removed the heavy spotlight from his back and held it against his hip to point the light forward. They followed the rails, all the while keeping a watchful eye for any incoming carts. Goblins were known to ambush any fools brave enough to wander through their claimed home territory. It was eerily quiet. Only the clanking of booted feet against the iron rails and Umbra's nails scratching the rocky path broke the silence. They reached a large room branching out in several smaller tunnels. There were still no signs of life.

The men turned to follow a narrow tunnel further down. Water trickled down from above them. Noctis lost his balance on several occasions as his feet slipped on the wet rocky ground. Thankfully Ignis was behind him and kept him upright and from making himself look like a fool in front of Cor and his men. Swallowing his pride, Noctis placed his hand against the cold stone wall for support. The sound of moving rocks alarmed the men.

"The structure doesn't sound stable", Ignis commented.

"It's not", Richard confirmed.

"Just great", Noctis muttered under his breath.

Umbra barked sharply in warning. A steady rumble and squeaking of wheels increased in volume.

"Watch out!"

A mine cart came out of the darkness and knocked William over who was at the rear and hadn't heard the warning. Several goblins jumped out of the cart and swarmed him. Cor was already engaging the meddlesome fiends while Richard pulled William to safety. The wounded hunter grunted in pain; he had hurt his leg badly from the crash and couldn't stay up on his feet. The spotlight had taken the brunt of the blow and was damaged beyond repair. Only the men's pocket torches lit up the tunnel.

Umbra turned to the opposite direction of the goblins and growled. Heavy footsteps alerted the hunters to a new presence. A tall, pale figure fearlessly walked beneath the shaft of Noctis' torchlight. Seeing its mutilated face and lidless onyx black eyes up close sent chills down the former king's spine. It held its long katana in a lazy hold, the blade resting against its shoulder. It bode its time as if waiting for something.

Another horde of goblins approached from behind it. Then, without warning, the tall daemon lunged forward and swiped its long blade to where Libertus' neck was just a split second ago. Anticipating the attack, Cor had rushed forward to parry the aramusha's strike. The Galahdan backed off from the duel and joined Ignis in dispatching the goblins.

"More coming from the rear!" Dave called. The air sizzled as magical flames burst out from the nozzle of the flamethrower. The stench of melting skin and boiling blood was nigh overwhelming. The goblins' loud screeches of pain seemed to only summon more fiends. The five hunters and a glaive had their hands full. Even Umbra joined the fray. With his jaws he snapped any wandering goblin's neck that dared to come too close to his master. Foul tasting black blood coated his fangs.

The aramusha took Cor by surprise and rushed past him straight towards Dave's unguarded back. Noctis hurried to protect the older man. Sparks flew as metal clashed with metal. His booted feet skidded backwards on the rocky floor from the force of the daemon's blow. Cor took the chance to slash at the daemon's back, but it was too quick; it kicked Noctis right in the stomach and sent him flying before turning around to parry the Marshal's attack.

Noctis landed next to Dave who immediately extinguished the flames to avoid burning his ally. The goblins rushed forward to overwhelm the defenceless flamethrower operator. Noctis pulled out his thundaga flask and let it fly among the pack of goblins. The whole tunnel lit up in blinding white light as lightning crackled and killed a dozen goblins, momentarily paralysing the rest of the daemons and allowing Noctis time to roll out of the flamethrower's line of fire. Dave continued his assault. Electricity continued to crackle from where Noctis' flask had landed and killed any goblins that made the mistake to step too close.

Richard and William had pushed the mining cart sideways and used it as cover to fire at the horde. Ignis joined Cor in engaging the aramusha while Libertus covered Dave's back. A familiar sound of high pitched gurgling came from behind the daemon leader.

Bombs.

Not good.

Noctis scrambled to his feet and ran past the tall daemon. The bombs were already increasing size at an alarming rate. He cleaved the closest bomb in half with his Engine Blade. It fell with a heavy thud, its dying flame illuminating the tunnel in hellish red light. Another three continued to grow. He managed to kill one more and engage another, but the last one evaded his slash and made its way to its master. Noctis wished now more than ever that he had his warping abilities.

With nothing else at hand, he took out his last magic flask – a leftover low-potency blizzard grenade – and threw it towards the daemon. The blizzard spell did little damage, but it slowed the bomb's advance enough for it to go off prematurely. The explosion destroyed the fragile structures supporting the roof. The last remaining bomb next to him followed the previous one's example and detonated. Noctis jumped for cover, but was thrown into air from the force of the blast. He landed painfully on the hard ground.

Rubble and jagged rocks fell and blocked the tunnel, separating him from the rest of the group. He lay still as dust and loose rocks showered down on him and waited for the loud rumble to come to a stop. The loose dirt covered the corpses of the bombs, hiding the light of their dying flames and encasing the tunnel in complete darkness once more.

Noctis couldn't hear the sound of fighting anymore. He couldn't hear anything at all besides his own ragged breathing and the sound of his racing heart. He inhaled the dusty air and coughed. Even with the aid of his torchlight he could hardly see through the haze. He waited for the dust to settle before he shakily stood up and attempted to wipe the excess dirt from his clothes. Grainy sand covered his hair and face. His mouth and ears hadn't been spared from the dirt shower, either. He spat out the muck and wiped his dirty face with an equally dirty sleeve. Some mess he had gotten himself in.

He was trapped. He moved to the rubble blocking the path to his friends and attempted to push, but nothing moved. It was as impassable as the sealed doors of old he had read about in stories. He felt sick. Sweat formed on his brow and upper lip. Blood gushed loudly in his ears and his breathing grew erratic. Instinctively he clutched to his pained chest and fought against the panic attack that threatened to take hold of him.

I'mgonnagetburiedaliveI'mgonnagetburiedalive-

 _'Keep calm, Noct'_ , he ordered himself. Funnily enough his inner rational voice sounded like Ignis.

His head felt light. He couldn't breathe properly and only managed to inhale short gasps of thick grainy air.

 _'Breathe in, breathe out. That's it.'_

He took in a long shuddering breath and exhaled it as slowly and calmly as he could. He continued his breathing exercise until he was certain the hyperventilating had passed.

Noctis leant against the wall. What was he to do now? He took out his walkie-talkie to inform his companions of his current situation. There wasn't even any static crackling in response, only dead silence. With few options available, Noctis turned to face the opposite side and searched for a way out of the enclosed space. His torchlight found a rock formation that looked loose enough to be moved. Carefully he pushed and was rewarded with a low peal as rocks tumbled and formed a small hole. He slipped his sword through it before crawling out of the death trap.

He took a long whiff of the stale underground air. His headache lessened as his lungs got their fill of oxygen. Rocks crumbled ominously above him. The structure was still unstable.

He walked in silence for good five minutes before the sound of squealing stopped him in his tracks. He covered the torchlight with the palm of his gloved hand and held his breath while standing completely still. A small pack of goblins emerged from a junction. They halted as if sensing his presence and sniffed the air dubiously. They crept closer to his hiding spot. Once they were only a spear's length away, Noctis uncovered the torchlight and killed the momentarily blinded goblins.

Two goblins had stayed far enough to avoid getting blinded and sneaked in from the side to assault him. Noctis blocked the first one's attack and send it flying back with a hard push from the flat side of his blade, but not before the goblin successfully snatched one of the two remaining potion bottles he carried on his person. The daemon stumbled briefly from the blow, but didn't let go of its prize. It chugged down the contents of his potion and cackled gleefully. Stunned by the dirty trick, Noctis failed to react on time as the second goblin reached him, its poisonous fangs digging through the fabric of his sleeve into his arm. With a yelp of pain, Noctis kicked off the creature. Its sharp teeth ripped his flesh as it was forcefully dislodged from its prey. Not wasting any time, the hunter impaled the off-balanced goblin.

The last remaining goblin squeaked and fled with his empty potion bottle clutched between its bony hands.

The poison worked surprisingly fast. Already Noctis was feeling its affects; his breathing grew laborious and his limbs felt heavy as lead. His head swam as he stumbled forward, his hold on the Engine Blade slackening until the blade's tip scraped the dusty ground. He tripped and fell heavily on his side. The sylleblossom fell from his pocket and landed in front of him. He couldn't summon the strength to even lift his head. He was so tired. He wanted badly to take a nap.

Just five minutes.

His eyes drifted shut.

* * *

Somebody was crying. Noctis opened his heavy eyelids and blinked at the blurry image of something blue in front of him. The sweet smell of the sylleblossom gradually helped clear the fog from his head. Sitting up, he noted he was still in the mines and separated from his friends. His arm was sore from where the goblin had bitten him. He took the last remaining potion bottle on him and emptied its content on the wound. He ripped a strip of cloth from his undershirt and wiped it clean from the dirt and dust before wrapping it around the swollen limb. He had no antidotes on him; Ignis carried most of their medical supplies. He could only hope the potion was enough. He took the fallen flower and put it back in his pocket. Curiously enough his limbs didn't feel nearly as heavy as they had before, even if he was still wobbly and unfocused.

A sharp sob reminded him of an unseen presence. Picking up the Engine Blade, Noctis staggered towards the sound. Was someone else stuck down here? How long had they been here?

"It's okay, I won't hurt you", he slurred. His tongue felt unusually thick in his mouth.

He came to a crossroad and paused to listen. The sniffling and sobbing was muffled as if the crying person was hiding under a thick blanket. He followed the sounds to an empty room and stumbled over discarded mining equipment. The shaft of his torchlight found its target huddled against the stone wall. He instantly recognised the faded white dress, now covered in dust.

"Luna?"

The crying quieted down. She lifted her head and warily watched him.

"How did you get down here?" Head buzzing, he nearly lost his balance as he stumbled beside her. His feet were numb and he couldn't trust any of his senses to guide him safely. His eyesight occasionally blurred, his ears rang as if he had stood next to a firing turret for too long and he constantly felt like he was free-falling and about to phase through the floor. That poison must've done a number on him. His current condition reminded him of his 18th birthday when Prompto had taken him to a sleazy bar in the outskirts of the city to celebrate. He hadn't realised how drunk he was until it was too late.

Ungracefully he slumped down next to her.

"You let me die."

His eyes widened in surprise. He could hardly believe his ears. She was actually talking! All he managed was a clever "Huh?" in reply.

"You let me die", she repeated. Hands fell from her tearstained cheeks and she turned to glare at him insistently. "You let me die for nothing."

Words failed him. He could only gape at her and stutter incomprehensibly.

"I showed you by example what it meant to sacrifice everything for the good of all of Eos. Yet here you are, doing _nothing_ to stop the Scourge and end all suffering. You made a promise to me!"

His heart thudded rapidly against his ribcage, his hands were clammy and he could feel adrenaline rush through his veins. Suddenly he was hyper aware of his surroundings and of her smallest movements. In the back of his mind he wondered what caused this abrupt alertness when just a moment ago he had felt so sluggish.

Little Luna continued her relentless accusing. "I thought you loved me! I thought you wanted to be with me, forever!" she cried hysterically. Tears welled in her bright blue eyes as she wrinkled the hem of her dress between her small hands in distress.

Noctis cradled her head between his palms. "I do love you. I do want to be with you."

Her eyes focused on his in an intense stare. "Then why?" She grabbed him by the vest. "Why won't you join me in death?"

Dread gnawed at his insides. Kill himself? And leave his friends and the people who depend on him?

"I still have people here who need me." He stroked her icy cheek with a thumb and rested his forehead against hers. "Please. Wait for me, Luna."

She lowered her gaze, her hold on his collar tightening. "I'm done waiting."

Her eyes gleamed yellow. Something oozed from the seams of her layered face. A trail of black blood trickled down from her hairline and over her eye, all the way down to the dress' neckline. She unsteadily stood up as more blood dripped from her nostrils, mouth, ears and eye sockets. Soon her whole face was covered in the foul fluid and the top of her white dress was soaked from it. Noctis scrambled on his feet and backed away from her.

"If you won't do your duty and would have me die in vain, then grant me this one satisfaction." She cornered him against the wall. He had nowhere to run. "Share my suffering!"

The bones of her small fingers crunched and popped as they stretched and grew into long sharp claws similar to an arachne's and tore his vest and shirt open. She ripped his skin with ease and dug into his meat. His stomach lurched as her twitching fingers wiggled between his muscles. He wanted to scream, but his parched throat managed only a guttural gasp. She let go of the collar to concentrate on scrabbling at his meat. He felt faint and was certain he would've collapsed had she not held him put with the hand that twitched between his muscles.

Seemingly happy with herself, she removed her bloodied pawing hand and punched hard enough for his ribcage to shatter. She split the bones and carelessly tossed them over her shoulder before pausing to admire her work. She looked like a child celebrating her birthday as she pulled his heart out. His veins were still attached to the pulsing organ. Seeing them stretch made his stomach churn from nausea. He heard a sickening, wet squelch when his veins snapped from the tension and released his heart. She held the still beating heart in front of his eyes. He heaved uncontrollably and vomited bile on her white bony arms. She didn't appear bothered by the stinking body fluid in the slightest and merely cooed at him.

"Don't worry, dear Noctis." Her voice was eerily soft, almost like a sweet lullaby. "I will safeguard your heart just as you have kept mine safe for all these years."

Numb hands found the hilt of his sword. The blade punctured her lungs. With a raspy wheeze she collapsed to the ground after he dislodged the blackened blade from her petite body. He staggered backwards and dropped the sword, horror written all over his shell-shocked face. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fainted next to her still body.

* * *

With a startled gasp Noctis sat up and clutched his chest. Dropping his gaze, he was relieved to see his clothes intact and his body hale and healthy. He was drenched in cold sweat and his clothes clung to him like a second skin. The calming scent of a sylleblossom invaded his nostrils. It was like a breath of fresh air compared to the stuffy and still air of the mines. But it wasn't the only scent he could smell; a familiar stale stench crept up his nose. Noctis turned his torchlight to point towards the source.

His blood ran cold and the torchlight fell from his trembling hand.

Next to his bloodied Engine Blade lay a pair of bony white feet. Even with the upper body shrouded in shadows, he could tell the limbs were twisted in an unnatural angle.

Had he truly…?

A dry sob wrecked his frame. He attempted to stand up, but his legs were barely responsive. With a frustrated gnarl, he forced himself on all fours and crawled towards the small body. Just as he was within arm's reach, the pale legs began to move. He halted and watched with bated breath. Was she alive? A quiet scraping of flesh across the hard floor was the only sound he could hear. Something dragged the body further away into the darkness, leaving behind a black-blooded trail.

"No!"

Picking his torchlight, he lost his balance and collapsed. With only arms mobile, he dragged his body forward. Following the trail, he came to a small hole that was barely large enough to fit a goblin or a child's body inside. He stuck his arm into the hole and felt around. A layer of something sticky covered the floor and squelched between his fingers. His hand enclosed around something solid and withdrew to hold it next to the torchlight. His hand and arm were covered in wet slosh that consisted of foul smelling daemon manure mixed with rotten black blood. In his hand he held a broken piece of a goblin skull. With a repulsed shudder, he tossed it away.

He peeked into the hole, but couldn't see anything. His only reward was the disgusting stench of daemon waste. He heard a wet snap as if a limb was pulled out of its socket. Quiet gnawing and munching echoed from the daemon nest followed by an occasional pleased hiss. He pulled out of the hole and threw up. Yellow liquid trickled down his chin even after finishing emptying his stomach. He wiped the drops of bile from his beard. His throat felt like it was burning and tears blurred his vision. He had killed her and left her remains to be defiled.

Not wanting to listen to the sickening symphony, he crawled back to where he had left his sword.

As he reached his soiled weapon, his torchlight hit something reflective. He forced himself to sit upright and picked up the see-through item. It was a potion bottle. And not just any potion bottle, but the very same one the goblin had stolen from him. How did it get here? Why hadn't the goblin brought its buddies to finish him off while he had been unconscious?

He held his head as the familiar buzzing intensified. His body was still fighting against the poison.

He hadn't felt so utterly alone for a long time. Ever since discovering his friendly ghost, he had felt like someone was always following and watching his back. She had saved him from getting ambushed during the daemon raid and showed where the injured chocobo was. He was fairly certain he had her to thank for his swift recovery from the elemental cannon's blizzard blast as well.

How come she wanted him to kill himself? Was it truly her or had he been hallucinating thanks to the goblin poison? He desperately wanted to believe it had been just the figment of his messed up imagination, but the lifeless body and the fresh blood on his blade were evidence he had hard time ignoring.

But what if…?

He glanced at the empty potion bottle and the black trail leading to the unknown creature's nest.

Little Luna never spoke when he was conscious. The only time they had engaged in a conversation had been while he was knocked unconscious from the blizzard blast, and even then she had only told him to get better for his friends' sake. She never accused him of his failures or demanded him to pay a blood price. On the contrary, she always made sure he stayed alive.

With a trembling hand, he took out the fragile blue flower out of his pocket and inhaled its aromatic scent. The throbbing lessened and he felt the numbness of his legs gradually fade away. Maybe the flower had some kind of healing properties against venom? It seemed to be slowing down the poison from taking over. He distantly recalled Luna telling him that sylleblossoms were used in hygiene products such as soaps as well as in medicine. They grew everywhere in Tenebrae and were therefore cheap ingredients.

His hope rekindled, Noctis wrapped his scarf around his lower face and placed the flower beneath the makeshift mask. He breathed in its sweet fragrance and waited for the buzzing to stop. Once confident he could stay on his feet, he stood up using his sword as support.

Even now Little Luna was saving him. Had she not placed the flower in his vest, he would've succumbed to the poison hours ago.

He left the room and stopped at the crossroad to listen. He could barely hear distant tumbling of rocks and high-pitched squealing of goblins coming from the opposite tunnel. It might lead him back to the fight and back to his companions, but he was in no condition to fight endless hordes of daemons. His mind made up, he took a turn to the right.

The tunnel led up and away from the stale stench of daemon waste. The further he went, the clearer the air smelt. A sudden loud static made him jump and nearly hit his head on the roof.

' _-oct. Come in, Noct._ ' The wave of relief was nearly overwhelming after hours of constant tension.

He quickly brought his hand to the walkie-talkie. He took a calming breath and readied his aloof pretence. "Present. I'm alright, just took a detour down in daemon latrine. Amazing stuff."

' _Glad to hear your humour is still intact_ ', the strategist dryly commented.

"How're you guys? All still in one piece?"

There was a brief silence on Ignis' end. ' _I'm afraid we lost Richard during the cave in. He was crushed under heavy debris while he tried to carry William to safety. He tripped over a goblin corpse and William fell from his back. Thankfully Libertus managed to pull William out of the danger, but we couldn't do anything for Richard. He died instantly._ '

Noctis sent a silent prayer for the hunter's soul. He might've not liked the man, but he didn't wish death for anyone.

"I see."

* * *

The sight of torchlight shafts had never been so welcome in his life. Umbra ran to him without restraint. Noctis chuckled and allowed the dog to fawn over him.

"Good to see you, too. Was lonely without you." He patted the dark-furred head affectionately.

Ignis held his nose. "You truly smell like you've been living in the sewers for the past week." Like all of the men, the blind brunet was covered in dust. The hems of his glaive uniform were burnt, presumably from friendly-fire.

Libertus, who was carrying an unconscious William on his back, halted when his torchlight illuminated the dark-haired hunter. "Damn, you look like you've been through hell."

Noctis looked down at himself. His dominant arm was caked in black stinking slosh while the other had a soaked-through rag covering his wound. He looked like someone had rolled him in tar and thrown him into a pit of dirt. Prompto would kill for that photo.

Cor eyed the rag wrapped around Noctis' arm. "Ignis, take out your medical kit. He is injured." Unsurprisingly the grim Marshal was the least injured out of all of them. Only indication of a struggle was the dirt and sweat covering his skin. Noctis was a little disappointed he didn't get to see the showdown between the aramusha and former Crownsguard. He would've preferred that by far to what he had to witness while separated from his companions. Forcing the images, sounds and smells out of his mind with a shake of his head, h concentrated on what was before him.

Ignis immediately took his kit from his rucksack. "What happened? Where are you hurt?"

"A goblin bit me on the arm. I feel a little woozy, but otherwise I'm okay."

The tactician frowned as he fumbled to find the injured arm. He removed his gloves and discarded Noctis' makeshift bandage to feel the wound with his fingertips.

"Ow! No need to press it. It hurts enough without you adding to it."

Ignis ignored him and cleaned the wound. He had Noctis drink an antidote while he wrapped the hunter's arm in a fresh bandage.

"I'm impressed ya'll made it this far on your own and while injured", Dave commented. His voice was gruff yet warm. "Doesn't take more than one bite from a goblin for a man to kick the bucket." Noctis noted the older man was favouring his other leg as he stood. If he squinted, he could see the outlines of a bandage hugging his injured thigh beneath the grey hunter slacks. Scratch marks covered the bare tattooed arms. His other sleeve was ripped from where the aramusha's katana had grazed him.

Libertus lowered William down and straightened his back. "Sounds like he's got the favour of one of the Six", he lightly joked. The Galahdan's breastplate was falling apart. He must've taken a heavy hit sometime during the fight. A bandage was wrapped around his forehead where he had received a new gash to add to his scar collection.

"Wouldn't count on that", Noctis mumbled.

Once his wound was taken care of and Ignis had made sure Dave and Libertus drank another potion to keep their wounds from reopening, the men trekked to the elevator and returned to the surface. Noctis couldn't help but notice how spacious the mine cage felt with Richard's absence. William woke up, but refused to acknowledge any of them. Libertus quietly explained to Noctis that Richard had been William's step-brother and the only family he had left. It was best to let him grieve in peace for now.

The ride back up went by in a flash as Noctis mulled over all that had happened down in the mines. He would have to ask Prompto if he had seen Little Luna while he'd been away. He still felt unsure about relying on his senses, even as the sylleblossom kept him sober and the antidote continued to purge the poison from his bloodstream. He wasn't sure he could tell the difference between sleep and awake anymore. He could only hope it was a temporary state.

The rusty cage-doors opened. He hurried out into the open space and deeply inhaled the cool air. He had no idea how long they had been down there, but it felt like days. He had almost given up on smelling fresh air ever again while stumbling alone in the darkness, poison weighing his limbs down.

"We have cleared most of the mines", Cor informed him. "Libertus, take him and William to the Stronghold's medic. Ignis, Dave. Get yourselves looked after as well. I will bring another team tomorrow to wipe out the leftover daemons."

"Yes, sir!"

Noctis made to follow the rest of the men back to the car when Cor's hand on his shoulder halted him. He glanced quizzically at the older man.

"You did well, Majesty. You saved us from getting buried alive."

Noctis lowered his gaze. "Hardly. Richard's dead thanks to me. Had I been faster, the bombs wouldn't have gone off."

"No use mulling over what ifs. You can waste away years thinking what could've been." His steely blue eyes softened. "I should know. I've carried the weight of your father's death on my shoulders all these years. For three years I searched for you, Majesty. I thought I had failed you as well and that the line of Lucis had ended."

Noctis lifted his hand to clasp Cor's coarse one. "You've never failed me, Marshal. You did your best to ensure the people of Leide had a safe place to stay. I couldn't ask for more."

Cor briefly squeezed his shoulder before briskly walking to the vehicle. He was already contacting the Stronghold to make sure the medical staff was ready to receive them.

They stayed in Meldacio Stronghold overnight. It was quite a different experience from his time in the Fort's infirmary. For one, they had actual beds instead of having tables posing as beds. An elderly lady came every hour to check on him and the monitor plugged to him. So far everything seemed good. The antidotes were doing their job to cleanse his blood and the medical herb tea she had prepared for him helped him to calm down. Umbra was allowed to lie next to his bed. Libertus, Dave and William were also recovering in the same building, but were kept in separate rooms. Ignis had suffered no serious injuries and decided to sleep among civilians.

Noctis fingered the bright blue flower. He had kept it hidden from everyone, including his companions and the medical staff. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to hide it. It wasn't like anybody would take it from him and demand to make it into an antidote. He switched off the lights and cradled the bloom next to his face.

* * *

The first thing Noctis did once he arrived to Fort Highwind was to find Prompto. He found the blond man at Cid's garage, staring intently at a blueprint as if trying to make heads or tails out of it. Cid might be a genius, but deciphering his hieroglyphs was another matter entirely.

"Hey, Noct. Did Cor roughen you up good?" He grinned.

"He didn't need to. The daemons did that for him." Noctis replied dryly. "He took us to clear the Balouve mines with Cindy's newest creation."

Prompto instantly perked up and set the papers down. "What did she invent this time? Anything cool? I tell you, man, she's amazing! Can you imagine a romantic date in the garage; surrounded by machinery and the smell of chemicals and armed with a tool box? The things we could teach each other-"

"A flamethrower using elemental energy", Noctis interrupted his gushing. As endearing as it was, he really didn't need to know all the juicy details of Prompto's Cindy-related fantasies.

"Did it work?"

"Yeah, we got the place cleared up." No need to tell him of the more gruesome details. They all had their own demons to deal with. No pun intended.

"Listen, Prompto." Noctis scratched the back of his neck in an attempt to keep himself calm. "Have you seen Little Luna while I was away?"

"Nope. But the real deal is still kept in the morgue. The rest of the hunters were buried outside the fort, but since she doesn't stink like a corpse should, they let her chill."

Noctis sighed in relief. He wanted to be there when it came time to say his final goodbye.

"Apparently Aranea got some phone-calls from Tenebrae's ambassador requesting her to be brought back to her homeland to be buried. They want to give her a proper ceremony fit for an Oracle."

"Do you have any idea when it's scheduled to take place?"

Prompto shrugged. "In a few weeks. They're making a fancy pall for the coffin and everything. Dunno much about funerals, but apparently they require a lot of work and the Tenebraeans wanna make it the best they can or something."

"Thanks."

So Little Luna was missing. No big deal, he had been away only two days. He refused to entertain the thought that he had truly killed her in the mines. She was just busy. Doing ghostly things.

His excuses did little to ease the knot of dread that had formed in his belly.

* * *

Noctis woke up with a startled gasp. His pulse raced and his heart felt like it was about to tear itself out of his chest. His whole body was drenched in cold sweat and trembling like a leaf. He glanced at the green digits of Prompto's newly purchased alarm clock. The blond hunter had bought it as a souvenir from Lestallum. It was shaped like a chocobo's head. Noctis wasn't sure if it was meant for him or Prompto. He liked to think he had outgrown his youth's habit of sleeping in. Normally the goofy clock made him smile, but tonight he could only remember a chocobo with a bloodied rag covering her eyes and how she had slumped down like a ragdoll when he put a bullet through her brain.

His sheets were damp. It was his third night terror that night. Thankfully Noctis had managed to persuade Prompto to go visit Cindy and therefore wasn't present to witness what a mess he was. He had let Umbra out after waking from his second night terror. Sometimes Umbra took it on himself to make rounds around the fort as if he was serving as eyes for someone. Gentiana, perhaps? It was almost comforting to think one of the Six still cared about the decaying remains of humanity. Almost.

Noctis kicked off his covers and sat up. He couldn't take this anymore. He was under constant strain from anxiety attacks and plagued by images of the past few weeks. He felt like he was stuck watching a never-ending loop of a shitty home video. He saw the mutilated faces of the hunters that had died in the daemon raid. He saw himself killing an innocent animal as an act of mercy, the chocobo's blood splattering over the embodiment of his most precious memories.

He saw Luna and Ardyn. He could still vividly recall every detail from that day; how her light blue eyes had widened in surprise as a knife dug into her flesh, how she had bled black blood as the corruption within her frail body threatened to eat her from the inside, how her hair had come free from the elegant braids, how she had defiantly stood her ground in the face of death and attempted to free her killer from the curse of his own making.

But most of all, he saw Little Luna. He saw her getting strangled by imps and heard her terrified scream. He saw her glassy eyes widen when he betrayed her trust and attempted to rip her mask off. He heard the faint gurgle as his sword impaled her plague-ridden body. He heard the distant munching of daemons feasting on her remains.

Noctis hurried out of his dorm to the restroom and emptied what little was left of the contents of his stomach. Shivering, he spat the foul taste from his mouth and washed his face. A pale reflection with sunken bloodshot eyes stared back at him. His shirt had visible sweat patches. He looked like hell.

Noctis staggered out of the restroom and made his way to the infirmary. He needed something to calm his nerves. Only a single nurse was on duty at this time of night. It was easy enough to sneak past her to the storage room where the drugs were kept. He found the pill dispenser with ease – he had stolen from it three times that week. Despite not knowing much about drugs, he had had become acquainted with oxymorphone during his stay in the infirmary and found out it was easy to get high as a kite from them.

Without hesitation, he popped a handful of pills in his mouth and replaced the dispenser in its shelf. Carefully he cracked the door open and made sure the coast was clear before sneaking back to the corridor. Now all he needed was to get back to his dorm and enjoy the brief break from his nightmares.

"Noct?"

 _Fuck._

He froze in his tracks and toyed with the thought of making a run for it, but realised he'd just postpone the inevitable. Iris caught up with him. She was wearing nothing but a long-hemmed faded shirt as a nightgown and her farmer-boots. Long brown tresses were tied to a loose braid that rested over her shoulder. Her hands were damp from a recent wash. She must've come from the restroom and spied on him. It would seem he wasn't the only one with sleeping problems.

"So it was _you_." She placed her hands on her hips and glared at him sternly. "I heard the nurses talk about drugs disappearing. I didn't expect you to be our resident junkie."

"Leave me alone."

She grabbed his arm before he could turn his back on her. "Noct, I can see you're hurting. Let me help you. Tell me what's wrong."

"I can't sleep when I keep seeing her die", he slurred. His eyes were glazing over from the drugs. "I killed her and now she won't visit me anymore."

Iris frowned in confusion. "Who are you talking about? Who won't visit you?"

"Littl'un", he mumbled.

"Little one?" Iris echoed. "Noct, you're not making any sense."

He pulled his arm free and pushed past her. Thinking he had reached safety, he opened the dorm's door only to have Iris slam it shut.

"Noct, you've been like this over a week. You're distant and hurting. Your actions don't make any sense to me!"

Irritated, he grabbed her by the wrist, opened the door and shoved her inside. He closed the door behind him and staggered to his bunk. Iris sat down next to him. Her sylleblossom scented shampoo only reminded him of the fleeting moments of happiness he had shared with Little Luna. Had he known his days with her were numbered, he would've done something more. He wouldn't have let her out of his sight.

He snapped out of his melancholic musings when Iris shyly took his hand in hers. Her sincere hazel eyes were so different from Luna's pale blue ones. They were warm and easily approachable, just like her brother's, yet they seemed to lack something.

Whereas Iris' eyes seemed to always shine with admiration and awe, Luna's cool blue gaze had regarded him as an equal – even when he had felt inferior as a crippled, plague-ridden boy. The four year age gap had done little to help him feel like he could one day stand as her equal, but time and time again she managed to push such insecure thoughts away with a mere turn of her lips. When she smiled, the very air surrounding them had felt warmer. Only Luna could melt his heart so effortlessly, even when his only window to her soul had been the vacant, glassy eyes of Little Luna. His heart ached as he remembered how Little Luna had laughed and smiled when they danced. He'd never see that sunny smile again.

"I'm here for you, Noct. If there's anything at all that I can do to help, I will."

Iris' bare thigh lightly pressed against his as she leant closer. Her smooth hand felt warm around his. It was nothing like the small chilled hand of Little Luna.

Iris was alive.

Luna was gone.

"Anything?" His voice was husky and his throat felt dry.

"Anything." She squeezed his hand, her lips parting in anticipation.

"I want to forget." He dropped his gaze to his lap and took a shuddering breath. "For one night, I want to forget everything."

His head swam. He could already feel the first wave of euphoria from the pills hitting him in full force. He barely registered as the clothes came off and her small, pink mouth covered his.

* * *

Something soft and warm was pressed against him. He could hear cries of seagulls and smell sea salt. Was he in Altissia? Drowsily he opened his fogged eyes and looked down to see his wife's golden head resting against his chest. Their thin blanket was tangled between their feet. He saw her wedding dress hanging next to the wardrobe while his suit had been lazily tossed over the back of a chair. Noctis found his wife's hand and fingered her wedding band. How come he had no recollection of the day before? Had he been drinking too much in the after party?

She stirred, but remained asleep. Her bare skin glowed under the morning sun. They lay in the bed for what felt like hours, but she showed no signs of waking up. Deciding he wanted to surprise her by bringing her breakfast to the bed, he carefully disentangled his limbs from hers and sat up.

He caught his reflection on the mirror of the vanity table. He was suffering from a serious case of bed hair, but it wasn't anything a brush and hair gel couldn't fix. He approached the mirror and rubbed his smooth chin. Something was off and he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Somehow his face felt foreign, like he was seeing someone else's face. But it was clearly him, so why-?

Shrugging, he opened the blinders. The morning sun suddenly vanished behind the horizon and the previously warm sea breeze dropped in temperature. With a shudder, Noctis closed the balcony door and went to retrieve clothes from the wardrobe. It was so dark he had to switch the lights on. Instead of the expected yellow glow, the room was illuminated in hallowed blue light.

What was going on?

He sat down next to his wife and gently shook her to wake her up. Her healthy, slightly tanned skin from the Altissian sun had turned to a sickly pale white. Seaweed was tangled between her wet locks.

"Luna?"

She rolled over to lie on her back. Her single lifeless eye stared blankly into oblivion. The skin on her cheek and arm stretched until it tore to form holes from which he could see bones and rotten flesh. Something moved underneath her skin and made its way up her throat to her mouth. A shellfish poked its head out between her parted lips, another from her open cheek. Water trickled down from her nostrils and the corners of her mouth.

Her clouded eye turned to stare at him as she lay paralyzed. All he could do was watch as the critters multiplied and feasted on her flesh.

* * *

Noctis sat up and stared at his trembling hands. Another nightmare. It had begun pleasantly enough, but it didn't last. They never did. Nothing seemed to work. Not sleeping pills, not drugs, not even-

He turned to stare at Iris' curled up body beside him. He felt sick. He couldn't believe he had slept with her just to distract himself from his guilt and grief. Carefully he climbed off the bed as not to wake her up and put on his clothes. He needed a shower. Badly. He snatched his towel, faded black jeans and clean skull-printed shirt that still faintly smelled of his soap – of Little Luna – from the wardrobe and silently left the dorm.

He undressed in the locker room and made his way to the showers. Dozen other people were already there when he arrived. The dorms were assigned to groups and each group had timed food serving and showers to avoid overcrowding. His assigned showering time wasn't due for another hour. Not paying any mind to the people or the occasional confused glance cast his way, he made his way to a shower stand, turned on the water and adjusted the temperature to freezing cold. He closed his eyes.

He couldn't remember anything coherent from last night with Iris; just detached sounds and sensations. He suspected he had kept his eyes closed throughout the affair. Perhaps he had even tried to convince his drugged mind that he was in Luna's arms. Would explain the dream he had had afterwards. He was glad for his hazy memory, but he couldn't erase the night completely from his mind. Removing all evidence from his filthy skin and bed sheets was one thing, but what about Iris? She would remember everything without a doubt. What would she think? Gladio was going to skin him alive if he found out.

To think just before he arrived to Meldacio Stronghold he had been vehemently denying sleeping with Iris to Ignis. How much could happen in a week.

He used the same soap he had used to clean Little Luna to scrub his own skin until it was red and raw. The cold water numbed him to the pain. He turned off the water and wiped his eyes, but his vision remained blurry. Was he crying? His clogged nose confirmed his suspicion.

He dried and dressed himself in his clean spare clothes before leaving and heading upstairs to the surface. He needed fresh air and didn't want to deal with Iris right now. Once Prompto returned from Hammerhead to save his sorry hide from the brunette's wrath, he'd go back to his dorm and wash the sheets.

"Hey, Prince!"

Noctis sharply turned to glare at the dragoon. "Shout that a little louder, will you."

"What's gotten your boxers in a twist?" Aranea arched an eyebrow at him, her hand resting on her hip.

He pointedly ignored her remark. "Do you have work for me?"

"My, you sound almost eager." She teased. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm only here on Specs' behalf. You weren't answering your HT."

The walkie-talkie was clipped to his vest and he had left said vest in the dorm. He sincerely hoped Iris hadn't answered it as he _really_ didn't want to go through the drama this early in the morning.

"Lead the way, Boss-lady."

Aranea took him to the command tower's elevator and placed a key card on the reader before choosing the top floor as their destination. No bumbling civilians were allowed anywhere near the sensitive computers and equipment. They found Ignis at his work desk, sipping Ebony as he listened to the pre-recorded female voice go through the MT-reports. Noctis suspected it had to be annoying listening to the monotonous voice all day long, but the blind man had little choice if he wanted to work on his own. And if Noctis knew Ignis at all, he dared to claim the ambassador preferred to not rely on other people if given the choice.

"Not like you to ignore a call, Noct", Ignis commented and set his coffee mug down.

Aranea walked to him and leant down to peck him on the lips. "I'll leave you boys to it." With a final caress across Ignis' jaw, she left the room, the heels of her leather boots clicking loudly against the concrete floor.

They waited until she had disappeared inside the elevator.

"So what's this about?" Noctis settled down in a worn leather office chair.

"Something has been bothering me for a while now. You recall the incident in the mines? The poison you suffered from was highly potent and should've rendered you unconscious within minutes. Yet we found you wide awake – sober even – hours after you got poisoned."

Noctis uncomfortably shifted in his seat and rubbed the still healing skin of his arm. He wondered if he would have to carry goblin-fang shaped scars for the rest of his life. "I did put a potion on the wound."

Ignis leant forward and rested his elbows on the desk. "Noct, I can tell when you're withholding information."

He should've known by now. Nothing went past Ignis. "I might've carried a sylleblossom in my pocket."

The brunet straightened in surprise. "Ah, I was wondering how come you smelled like Iris' shampoo. That would explain it. You were aware of its medical properties, I take it?"

"No, I-" He scratched the back of his neck as he searched for the correct words. "I carried it for sentimental reasons."

Ignis furrowed his brows in bafflement. "So you didn't make fine powder of its petals and mix it with water or a potion to drink it?"

"Ah, no." He was in for it now.

"May I ask where you received a sylleblossom? As far as I'm aware, the Tenebraeans sell only finished products, not raw ingredients."

How could he explain? He had no proof of Little Luna's existence, not anymore. Except for the vase-

 _Oh shit!_

Iris was in his dorm. She'd notice the flowers without a doubt. Not only would he have to explain to Ignis how he murdered the embodiment of his lover's soul – he didn't really know how else to describe her, she didn't exactly fit the 'ghost' -category – he would also have to explain to Iris why he had flowers not native to Lucis in his dorm. He was already in deep enough mess. He didn't want to hurt her feelings further by admitting he had bedded her just to forget about the person who owned his heart.

"Noct?"

He flinched. "It's a long story."

"We have time, don't we?" Ignis leant back on his leather chair and crossed his gloved hands across his abdomen, his coffee forgotten.

"You wouldn't believe me."

"Try me."

Noctis sighed. "You remember how I was searching for something that I wasn't sure if it existed?"

Ignis hummed in confirmation.

"I've been seeing Luna a lot ever since I found her body. She gave me the flower."

The older man inhaled sharply. "My word."

Noctis dropped his gaze to his single motorcycle glove, his shoulders slumping under the heavy burden of guilt and shame. He wasn't ready to talk about Little Luna.

"Have you thanked her for saving you?" He could hear the smile in the blind brunet's voice.

He lifted his head. "Huh?"

"Surely you haven't lost your manners."

Of course. He still had the notebook. Maybe, just maybe-!

"I gotta go!" he announced and dashed to the elevator.

* * *

He found Umbra waiting for him outside the command tower. The dog barked in greeting.

"Hey, boy." Noctis knelt and scratched behind the canine's ears. "You didn't come keep me company last night." He dropped his voice to a whisper. "Maybe that's for the best."

Umbra's presence might have prevented him from doing what he did, but in the end he had no-one but himself to blame. The dog hadn't saved him from his night terrors or his night-time visits to the infirmary.

Noctis took the notebook from its casing and flipped it open to a blank spread. He tapped the end of his pen against the page in thought. This was Luna, he reminded himself. He didn't need to dress his gratitude in fancy words. She would understand. She had told him a long time ago to be himself and not care about royal protocol. It was between only the two of them. He wrote in slow and precise penmanship. Only his best handwriting would suffice.

 _'Thank you for your thoughtful gift, Luna. It saved my life. I hope this message reaches you_ _,_ _wherever you are. I miss you.'_

He read and reread his words before glancing at Umbra. He wasn't sure what he had expected, for her words to just magically appear next to his? He had to be patient. Noctis closed the book and put it back in its holster.

"Deliver that for me, will you?"

Umbra wagged his tail, but made no move to follow his request. Was it because there was no-one to deliver it to anymore? Or did he simply not need to move when Luna wasn't physically bound to this world? Maybe she had already written her answer?

He took the notebook and checked his entry. The page next to it remained blank. His heart fell in disappointment. With a sad sigh he left to assist Cid while waiting for Prompto's return.

* * *

Noctis lay in bed and went through the photos Prompto had taken. Hammerhead garage hadn't changed much since he last visited. The diner had gone through drastic interior changes as it no longer served as a resting place for weary travellers but as a last line of defence against invaders from Insomnia.

Cindy had let her blond curly locks grow past her shoulders and kept them in low pigtails. Her formerly tanned skin had lost its healthy colour from lack of sun, just like the rest of the population. With the post-apocalyptic climate to take into consideration, she had abandoned her hotpants and replaced them with faded jeans. She wore a red and black flannel shirt beneath her old custom-made Hammerhead jacket. Curiously enough, her ever-present cap had changed owners and sat snugly on Prompto's blond head.

Noctis glanced at the nightstand. Previously absent from any items, it now held Little Luna's sylleblossom arrangement, his handheld radio, Prompto's alarm clock and Cindy's cap.

There were plenty of pictures of Cindy working on hallowed lamps. He even found a picture of Dave getting the cylinder of his flamethrower refilled. A dark-skinned boy wearing Hammerhead's cap appeared in several photos. Prompto had told him Cindy had taken Takka's son as her apprentice to ensure her knowledge would be passed on to the next generation.

The two blonds seemed happy, surrounded by gadgets, tools and machinery. Prompto had told him how he had repurposed his Drillbreaker to a drill that could efficiently harvest elemental energy from deposits. Apparently that had been the ice-breaker and earned him Cindy's undivided attention. Noctis was happy for his friend. It had taken the shy blond a decade to get to Cid's good graces and muster the courage to approach Cindy without relying on the former king's support.

As he absently browsed through the photos, he came across several pictures of himself making strange poses in the dorm. He was laughing and holding his skull-printed shirt in one hand and holding air with the other. It seemed like he was swaying from side to side. On closer inspection he noticed the sylleblossom arrangement was missing from the background. The pictures were taken when he had been dancing with Little Luna.

He turned the camera around in his hands and snapped a photo of the nightstand. Surely enough he could see only the radio, alarm clock and cap on top of it. Did it mean only he and Prompto could see the flowers?

Well, if nothing else, it meant he didn't have to explain their existence to Iris. He almost wished he had to, if only to prove he wasn't going crazy. He still hadn't come up with a sound theory as to why only he and Prompto could see Little Luna. Prompto had suggested it might've been because she was responsible for bringing the two friends together, but it didn't really make any sense in Noctis' mind. Personally he suspected the Starscourge had something to do with it. Besides him and Prompto, only the daemons seemed to be able to sense her. He wasn't sure about Prompto, but it felt safe to assume the blond had been in some kind of contact with the plague when he had been nothing but a babe in Verstael's laboratory. Noctis himself had been infected by it when the marilith had attacked him and his entourage. But it was all speculation.

Scratching on the door alerted him to Umbra's return from his rounds. The hunter opened the door to let the dog in and removed the notebook and its casing from his back. Umbra jumped on the bed to his usual spot and settled down for the night. Not able to help himself, Noctis checked the notebook. Still nothing. With a heavy sigh, he put the camera and notebook down on the nightstand and switched off the lights.

Prompto had already fallen asleep. It was a long drive from Hammerhead to Cleigne. He wondered how much longer he would share his dorm with Prompto before Cindy's siren song had him packing his things for good.

* * *

Noctis blearily opened his eyes and squinted at the green digits hovering over the nightstand. 4 am.

He lay still and listened. All he could hear was the steady hum of the radiator and Prompto's soft, barely audible snoring. Umbra slept soundlessly at his feet, his warm fur comforting against his toes. What had woken him up so early? He felt his neck for dampness, but found no evidence suggesting he had suffered from another night terror. Just as Noctis was about to be lulled back to sleep by the familiar nightly sounds, he felt the mattress of his bed dip under additional weight.

Had someone sneaked in?

Quietly sitting up as not to alarm the intruder, he waited for his eyes to get adjusted to the dim light of the alarm clock. His heart skipped a beat when he recognised the familiar thin legs and newly mended and washed summer dress. She sat at the edge of the bed, her back facing him as she ran her bony fingers through the sleeping dog's fur. She was clutching something in her other hand.

 _Luna._

Startled, she turned around, her body tense. She had clearly expected her visit to go unnoticed. It was only then that he realised he had said her name out loud.

Before he realised what he was doing, he had leant forward and pulled the girl to sit in his lap, arms wrapped around her small frame in a tight embrace. He buried his nose in her blond locks and inhaled deeply – she faintly smelled of his soap and Iris' shampoo and nothing else. She had no odour of her own, just what was artificially given to her.

While it secretly made him delighted that she smelled of his soap and made him feel like he owned her, at the same time smelling Iris' shampoo only reminded him of what he had done the previous night. How quick had he been to replace Luna after thinking he had lost her for good. He had been so eager to distract himself from his grief by any means possible. Guilt throbbed painfully in his chest.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to- I didn't want to-", his voice was raspy from lack of use.

She interrupted him by playfully pinching his bicep and pulled back enough for him to see the understanding in her pale gaze, her lips curving in a wan smile. Reaper, he had missed that smile. As she reached up to wipe away his tears, her glassy eyes caught the faint green light of the alarm clock and reflected it like a coeurl's. She dropped her hands to his and held his fingers, squeezing them reassuringly.

There was nothing to forgive.

She let go of his hands and moved out of his lap before pushing him to lie back. Frowning, he grudgingly complied. She stroked the side of his face as a final parting before making to stand up.

He wasn't about to let her disappear on him again.

He snatched her wrist and forcefully pulled her to lie on top of him. Her sharp hip bone dug into his abdomen painfully, but he managed to help her settle to a more comfortable position with his free hand. Her bangs hung like a curtain over her eyes, hiding half of her immature features in shadows.

He tugged the locks framing her face behind her ear and dropped his hand to the chilly cardboard-like skin of her face. His hand found the familiar seam of her layered face, but made no move to try and uncover its secrets. Instead, he let his fingers trail down to cup her chin. Her face was a blank mask as he pulled her head down to his and captured her lips in a chaste kiss. There was no warm breath against his face, no frantically thudding heartbeat within her breast. The realisation cut his insides like a knife. She wasn't alive – she was only as real as he made her out to be.

In the back of his mind he knew what he was doing was wrong on so many levels, but at this moment he couldn't find the voice of reason within himself and let his instincts and morbid fascination take over. He stroked his thumb across her chapped lips and let it trail down to her pale neck. He watched her face for any reaction as he carefully pressed the bruised skin, but received none. Her vacant stare only confirmed what he had suspected ever since she first denied feeling any pain – she was physically completely numb, and perhaps even emotionally to some extent. He had seen brief flickers of emotions here and there, but most of the time she reminded him of a marionette without a guiding hand or a broken mirror that reflected his emotions back at him in distortion.

Feeling slightly guilty for intentionally trying to cause her pain, he lightly brushed his lips over the bruises. Without his hand to support her head, she let it drop to rest in the crook of his neck, her unmoving lips pressed against his sensitive flesh in a feather-light touch. She was completely still as she lay draped across his chest, and like an unfeeling doll, she let him have his way with her. Greedily he ran his hand across the bare skin of her upper back and traced the sharp shoulder blades, while simultaneously combing her blond tresses with the other hand. He made it a game to himself to count the tiny scars decorating her uncovered skin.

His limbs gradually grew heavy. He was emotionally drained and overall beyond exhausted after everything he had gone through for the past week. Sleep weighed his eyelids down, but he refused to let himself rest. He didn't want to lose her, not when he just got her back. His hold on the limp girl tightened possessively.

Stirring, Little Luna brought her small hand to caress his bearded chin. Thrilled by her unexpected movement, his arms immediately loosened their hold and allowed her to sit up. Cool fingertips gently closed his droopy eyelids. Noctis mumbled a half-hearted protest, but quieted down when strands of her hair tickled his face and chilled lips graced his forehead in a ghostly caress. He fell asleep to the scent of sylleblossoms after summer rain.

The next morning he found something small and light blue sitting next to his pillow. On closer inspection he realised it was the very same Carbuncle figurine his father had given to him as a child to watch over him. The paintwork was peeling off the wooden surface and the colours were washed after a decade of rolling in rubble and dust. He wondered how she had known where to find it. Maybe that was why he hadn't seen her all this time? He couldn't imagine it being easy to find even if she could bend some rules of nature to her advantage.

He placed it next to the wooden vase. The sylleblossoms were still in full bloom. He had checked the vase to make sure the flowers didn't run out of water, but the water level hadn't dipped in the slightest ever since receiving the thoughtful gift. It was as if the vase and its contents were suspended in animation.

His notebook was open. Had Prompto looked through it? Or had Luna…?

He quickly took it from the nightstand. Next to his message had appeared a sticker of a moogle wearing an arm cast. He recognised it from flyers he had seen back in his school days. It was the mascot of IPCHC – Insomnia's public children's healthcare centre. Beneath it read _'You need to take better care of yourself, so I won't have to!'_

He let out a strangled laugh.

As he traced the words with his fingertips, he noticed a drop of ink smearing the page. Curious. For as long as he had known her, she had never left even the smallest of smudges. It was definitely Luna's handwriting, so it wasn't like Prompto had left him a fake message.

He brought the book close to his nose and smelled the paper. There was no mistaking the stale smell of daemon blood. Was Little Luna hurt? Had she bled over their notebook? Better yet, what _was_ she? So far he had been content on letting her existence remain a mystery if only to enjoy a stolen moment or two before she was permanently taken from him. Ever the pessimist, he only deemed it a matter of time before she would disappear for good. He prayed to the Reaper that day would never come.

As he closed the notebook, he noticed his left arm was devoid of teeth marks. Had she healed him again? Due to her calling as an Oracle, Luna's body had been corrupted from within when she healed others from the plague. Was something similar happening again? Was Little Luna killing herself to keep him healed?

He silently vowed he wouldn't let her die again. Not even for his sake.

* * *

 _A/N: Hope this chapter made you feel as uncomfortable as it made me when wrote it. XD_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Note: This is story was originally written to be a music fic, but since FFdotnet doesn't allow links, I will just leave the raw text. If you want the 'full experience', I have this story on AO3 with links and pictures. Just Google Haprilona ao3 and you'll find the story under the same name!**_

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

Noctis sat back and watched Prompto set up his modified Drillbreaker on an elemental deposit. He covered his ears and watched as the drill sprung alive with the revving of its engine. It dug into the elemental-rich earth and drained it of its energy, similar to how his Engine Blade harvested said force from slain daemons and beasts. Next to the drill were several metal barrels meant for the harvested fuel.

The driller wore large yellow earmuffs that shielded his hearing from the loud buzzing. They were covered in doodles made with a thick tipped marker: a chocobo, a curvy monkey covered in grease – a reference to Cindy, he presumed – and the main cast from King's Knight to name a few. Even his newly gifted garage overalls had been decorated with random inked phrases and doodles. Clearly his friend had taken the chance to vent his boredom during the long car drives on his clothes. He wondered what Cid thought of Prompto's artistic habits.

Noctis buried his bearded chin in the collar of his coat. There were no trees near Dainse haven to cover them from the chill breeze that carried all the way from Callatein's Plunge. The steam of his breath tickled his face. Figuring he wasn't going to get any warmer by sitting on his backside, he removed one hand from his ear, tapped his friend's shoulder and waited for the drilling to stop.

"Sup?" Prompto removed the tacky earmuffs and wiped his sweaty forehead.

"I'm freezing my ass off. I'm gonna take a walk."

The freckled man looked apologetic. "Ahh. Sorry, buddy, I didn't pack another drill with me."

Noctis shoved his freezing hands in his pockets. "That's 'cause you don't have another drill."

Prompto grinned. "True." He took out an empty crystal flask from his pocket, put a pipe in one of the barrels and with a turn of the tap filled the flask before casually tossing it to his friend. "Just don't go too far. I don't wanna get ambushed by daemons."

Noctis caught the flask. "I'll watch your back. Just need to get my blood flowing is all."

With that Prompto put his earmuffs back on and switched on the drill. Noctis briskly walked further away from the ear-piercing racket.

Ignoring the phone vibrating against his thigh was becoming a habit as Noctis didn't need to confirm the caller ID to know it was Iris. He had been avoiding her for the last two days and had yet to reveal his mistake to anyone, even Prompto. Not necessarily for the lack of wanting to – although that _did_ play a part in his reluctance – but because he didn't know how to bring it up.

' _Hey, Gladio. I screwed your sister._ ' He wouldn't have to worry about continuing the Lucis Caelum line after the fiercely overprotective brother was done sterilising him.

' _Ignis, do I smell like Iris? Your theory would be correct this time._ ' He'd be lucky to escape with a firm lecture.

' _Prompto, you said you wanted to see me hook up with Iris…_ ' Definitely not what his friend had meant.

He couldn't keep ignoring the issue forever. If he didn't address Iris and talk this through, she would bring it up to 'Gladdy' and then the whole fort would know.

Bracing himself, Noctis brought the cell phone to his ear and pressed the 'accept call' -button. A long monotonous beep was his only reward. She must've hung up just as he answered. Figures. No way did he had the guts to call her himself.

With a frustrated sigh he shoved his phone back in his pocket. Guess he'd just have to talk to her once they returned to the fort. Noctis noticed Umbra hiding under the van. The dog was a pathetic sight as he covered the sensitive ears with his paws to muffle Prompto's drilling.

Noctis knelt down and peered under the car. "You okay there, boy?"

The canine gritted his fangs in an ugly grimace as if commenting on the noise. Chuckling, Noctis dragged the dog out.

"Some guard dog you are. C'mon, I need to write Luna a message."

Reluctantly Umbra allowed himself to be pulled out from under the car. The notebook was removed from its casing and flipped to a blank page. Noctis hadn't seen her since she brought him the Carbuncle figurine and healed his arm. He wanted their next meeting to be more casual and less about saving dying birds or his sorry hide. More than anything, he wanted to actually sit down and talk with her. To her. Whatever. He could start by asking why she never spoke.

It was slightly unnerving how easily he had gotten accustomed to the unnatural. To him it was perfectly normal that he could contact his dead fiancée through an old weathered notebook that was carried by an immortal dog. It was just another day in his life when he caught brief glimpses of a white dress from his peripheral vision or when the latest injury from a daemon encounter was mysteriously healed the next morning.

He tapped the end of the pen against his bearded chin as he tried to think of a good way to invite her over.

' _I'd like to spend time with you, if your undead schedule isn't too full._ ' Nah.

' _Poor little old me misses my friendly ghost. Throw this geezer a bone and come visit?_ ' Hell no.

When did he become such a loser? He scratched his cheek absently. Last time she came to visit, Noctis had thanked her for saving him and expressed his longing for her presence. Maybe a good ol' ' _I miss you_ ' could do the trick?

He glanced at the miserable dog and the bushy tail tugged between quivering legs. Umbra _really_ hated that drill. Somehow he could be brave and ferocious when dealing with daemons and not be bothered at all by the racket of turrets firing right beside him, but for some reason Prompto's drill was making him miserable. Maybe it produced some sort of high-pitched whine along with the regular buzzing that only dogs could hear.

Noctis set his pen on paper. ' _Miss you. Come visit me soon?_ ' Much better. Simple yet effective. He wondered how she could receive the message when the messenger refused to do his job. In the end it hardly mattered as long as it worked. He closed the book and put it back in its casing before standing up and letting Umbra inside the van. The noise was much more bearable there. Making sure the Engine Blade was securely tied to his belt, Noctis made his way back to Prompto.

* * *

As soon as he drove the van past the gatekeeper-MT, Noctis spotted the pale figure of Little Luna balancing on top of a fence that separated the airship landing zone from the rest of the fort. A slow grin crept to his lips. She had received his message.

"Is that who I think it is?" Prompto peered through the windshield.

Noctis couldn't keep the excitement from his tone. "Yep."

He parked the van and stepped out. Prompto jogged off to find a trolley to move the elemental energy-filled barrels to the garage. Despite civilians and hunters alike flocking the area, Noctis could clearly see Little Luna's white dress gently swaying in the chill breeze above the crowds. She spotted him and waved. Incontinently he waved back. He doubted people would pay any attention to him or realise he was waving at thin air – from their perspective, anyway.

He didn't notice someone else returning his wave.

"Noct!"

His eyes fell from Little Luna to the brunette in farmer's overalls.

"There you are. I've been worried about you! You haven't answered my calls." A strong smell of hay floated up to his nose as she came closer. Her boots were covered in mud and chocobo manure. She must've just returned from the farm. He could make out Talcott's familiar flannel shirt and Hammerhead cap peeking behind passing bodies.

"Must've had my phone on mute", Noctis easily lied. He didn't want to have 'The Talk' in public. "Doesn't help I'm half-deaf after hearing Prompto's drill for an hour."

Iris let out a relieved sigh accompanied by a small giggle. "I'm so glad to see you're okay now. You've been acting strange lately and I didn't really know what to make of it."

"Yeah." Noctis shifted his weight uneasily and glanced to where Little Luna had been standing. Of course she was gone. _Damn it_.

"Say, Noct. With all the hustle and bustle of the Market day and the daemon attack, we haven't really had the chance to spend time together. You should ask Ignis to grant you a day off."

A day off? It's not like he had assigned work days; he worked when it was required. Other times he passed time with mundane activities or helping Cid with what he could. Although he rarely had to worry about boredom as Aranea was more than eager to make sure he didn't stay inactive for long.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and frowned. "What for?"

"So we could hang out, silly!"

This could be his chance to find privacy to dissuade her of any romantic notions. He doubted she wanted an audience. He sure didn't. But he didn't like misleading her and giving her false hope.

Noctis nearly jumped out of his skin when he noticed Little Luna appear from behind Iris' back. She settled between them and looked up, her head turning back and forth between them as if assessing the situation. Seeming to come to a conclusion, she took a step back to stand next to Iris and frowned. She ruffled her blond hair and made a valiant effort to style it similarly to his before stuffing her hands in imaginary pockets and hunching forward. Was she imitating him?

Not able to help himself, he snorted.

 _Ha. Ha. Very funny, you cheeky little imp._

Iris' smile faded as confusion weighing down her pink lips. "What?"

"That's a good idea", he managed to say even as his lips quivered from a suppressed grin. Little Luna beamed up at him and dropped her hands from the imaginary pockets. Reaper, he had missed her. He would do anything to see her smile.

"Really? I mean, great! I'll ask if I could get Ignis to cook us something."

Oh crap. She was taking their social outing as a date. Not only a date, but a dinner date. Way to ruin her day by ending it with a "sorry, it's not you, it's me"-talk.

"Maybe that's too much", he tentatively cut in. "I mean, Ignis is busy with work and can't just come down from his tower to cook a meal for random denizens."

Iris put her dirt-covered gloved hands on her hips and glowered. A storm brewed in her hazel eyes. This could end badly. Next to her Little Luna copied her expression and pose. It was hard to concentrate with her actively trying to make him laugh. "We're not just random denizens; we're his friends! I'm sure he'd like to have a break and do something he actually loves for a change!"

How did he always end up in these situations?

"I still don't think it's a good idea", he mumbled in defeat.

Recognising his reluctant agreement, Iris grinned at him in delight. She always got her way when it came to him, Gladio, Ignis and later Prompto. After all, she was the group's baby sister and they had adored pampering her ever since she was a little girl. But then she reached her thirteenth year and started casting doe-eyes his way whenever they happened to be in the same room. Those two years had been highly awkward times and he had made sure never to leave Gladio's side whenever visiting the Amicitia household. When he had complained about the youngest Amicitia's behaviour to Ignis, the advisor-in-training assured him that it would pass and she was just having a little crush on him.

" _Not so different from the one you nurture on Lady Lunafreya, I should think._ "

" _I-I am not!_ " his seventeen-year-old self had heatedly claimed, but even back then he hadn't fooled anybody.

Those were much simpler times.

"I'll let you know when it's ready. And be sure to wear something nice!" Offering a final wave in parting, she joined Talcott and strolled down to the underground levels with a spring in her step.

Defeated, Noctis ran a hand through his hair in frustration before glancing at his ghostly companion. Little Luna covered her mouth to silence her muffled giggles.

"I'm glad you find this funny", he grumbled and went to help Prompto unload the barrels from the van.

* * *

Noctis sauntered to his dorm. Iris had asked him to wear 'something nice'. A simple request, but not one he could fulfil. His idea of nice equalled a clean hunter's uniform, since he didn't exactly own outfits for casual social events. Figuring he could leave the vest, scarf and weapons behind, just this once, he pulled out a clean shirt from the wardrobe. He stripped out of his coat and skull-printed shirt and carelessly tossed them on the bed. When he didn't hear the expected rustle of cloth hitting cloth, he turned around and saw Little Luna sitting on his bunk and peering at him through the collar of his shirt. Suddenly self-conscious about his topless state, he turned his back to her and hurriedly pulled the long-sleeved black shirt on.

Little Luna dropped the shirt and coat, stood up and held one hand behind her back as if she was hiding something. She beckoned him to come closer.

"What are you up to this time, you little minx?" His grin softened the bite of his words. Hands on his hips, he stood in front of her and quizzically raised a brow.

She motioned him to turn around. Noctis frowned in suspicion, but complied with a melodramatic sigh. "I'm gonna regret this, aren't I."

Something was wrapped tightly around his neck. For a brief moment he panicked as he imagined a noose strangling him, but the expected light-headedness resulting from running out of air never came. He looked down. It was the tie he had worn with his royal raiment back in Insomnia. He turned around to glare at the little girl.

"It's not a date. I don't need to dress up." Ignoring her pout, he pulled the white striped black tie off. She lowered her glassy eyes to stare at her toes. Was she seriously sulking over a tie of all things? Why did she want him to wear it so badly? He sat down next to her and fingered the silken cloth. Was it because she had expected to see him wear it while waiting for him in Altissia? Was he denying her an innocent daydream?

He loosely tied the piece of cloth around her bare neck. "You know what? If you want to see me in the suit so badly, I promise I'll put it on for your-", he stopped himself. Curious, she looked up at him expectantly, but he didn't have the heart to say it out loud.

 _Funeral._

Her funeral was less than two weeks away.

It had been over a month since he found Little Luna in Caem and retrieved the corpse of his fiancée from the icy waters. She remained in the same condition as when he found her; one unfocused eye staring into space, pale slime-covered skin of a recently killed victim and lacking the foul stench one would associate with a corpse. Even if she was left unattended with her body bag open, the flies didn't appear interested enough to bother her. She was frozen in time like the flowers Little Luna had given to him. Ignis suspected her body was biologically four to six hours old after death. When Noctis had asked how he knew that, especially without his vision, Ignis told him to try clenching her fingers into a fist. Thinking nothing of it, the hunter had done as asked only to realise it was impossible.

" _Rigor mortis. Causes limbs to stiffen and lasts seventy-two hours. Can occur as early as four hours post-mortem_ ", Ignis had explained. " _Truly curious how she hasn't proceeded past the third stage of death. Do you suppose the ghost of Lady Lunafreya you mentioned earlier could have something to do with it?_ "

" _Definitely. I think she has everything to do with Luna's condition._ "

It was then that he had noticed her left hand. The dominant hand had been clutched as if she was holding an invisible pen. He could've sworn both of her hands had been in a relaxed position when he last visited her. It had made him think; had he received the notebook messages from her instead of Little Luna? Or was she truly one and the same? The black blood he had found next to the last entry pointed towards her smaller counterpart. He highly doubted the Luna in the body bag would just unzip her bag from the inside, walk to his room while he slept and write to him as well as bleed over their notebook.

Noctis carefully studied Little Luna. She didn't seem to have any visible wounds besides the faint bruises that peeked underneath his tie. However, the Luna in the morgue still had the blackened stab wound below her right breast. He had to admit to himself that the image of Luna's animated corpse moving around was highly unsettling. As desperate as he was to be with his fiancée and enjoy every waking moment he could steal from her younger counterpart, he couldn't say he wanted to add more to his ever lengthening list of nightmares.

Little Luna smiled sadly as she realised what he had left unsaid. He wondered if she knew what would happen after the funeral. Would she stay with him or disappear for good? From the bittersweet turn of her lips he could tell more than he wanted to know.

"Hey." He gently lifted her chin. "I'll join you soon enough. You just enjoy your well-deserved break from saving my sorry behind, okay?" He tried to imagine living another thirty to forty years without her. He doubted he'd ever live to be as old as Cid. Even reaching sixties seemed highly unlikely; something was bound to kill him long before then, whether it was daemons, his own recklessness or ever elusive sanity, an illness or something as mundane as extreme case of food poisoning.

Her small hands balled into fists in her lap. It was an unpleasant conversation, but he needed to get it out of his chest and make sure she fully understood what she meant to him. "I swear I'm not meant for anyone else. What happened with Iris was a mistake and I intend to tell her that." He took her cool hands in his and opened the fists by interlacing their fingers together. "I admit I've been a coward and avoided her, but I know it's unfair to keep her in the dark." Her troubled eyes focused slightly past him in deep thought. He wished he could somehow read her thoughts from her layered face.

Noctis released her other hand and lifted his knuckles to caress her bare shoulder. She didn't appear to notice. There were no shivers nor did she get goosebumps on her pale skin from his feather-light touch. He scolded himself internally for expecting her to react. Their last night together should've made it clear to him that she was unable to enjoy his proximity in the same way he enjoyed hers. It wasn't a mutual relationship if one could even call it one. She was always giving while he was always taking. "And it's equally unfair to you", he quietly added.

To his surprise Little Luna pointed at his chest and cupped her hands. She presented her open palms to him as if offering his heart back.

Creases formed on his forehead from a frown as he attempted to decipher her hand signs. "You're saying my heart is free to let you go and move on?"

He didn't miss how she clenched her jaw and pursed her lips to keep them from trembling or the sadness that flashed in her downcast eyes before disappearing under the curtain of her fringe. Little Luna solemnly nodded. She was serious about this. It was obvious she didn't want to lose him, but true to her nature she would rather leave this world knowing he would be happy after she was gone. Not only did she look after him and his health, she held his happiness in high priority – even if it meant sacrificing her own.

"Idiot."

She sharply looked up, confusion and hurt dancing in her misty gaze.

"I can't ignore how I feel about you. It's you or no-one." His lips curled into a teasing smirk. "Besides, my heart has a no-return policy."

A faint, almost unnoticeable rosy hue dusted her pale cheeks and she shyly played with the hem of her dress. Overwhelmed with adoration, he wasn't able to resist the sudden impulse to place a hand to the nape of her neck and guide her head closer to his. Butterflies fluttered in the pit of his stomach when he saw her blond-lashed eyelids closing instinctively. His lips delicately brushed the corner of her mouth in a chaste kiss. As much as he wanted physical proximity from her that had been denied from him when she died, he didn't dare to cross the thin line between romantic and familial intimacy. She had the appearance of a child and he was old enough to be her father. He was scared what she might think of him if he were to indulge in more passionate displays of affection.

She didn't resist when Noctis pulled her to a tender hug and rested his bearded chin against her blond crown. Gradually she relaxed and allowed her cheek to lean against his breast. He was certain she could hear and feel the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. Not for the first time, Noctis wished he could give Little Luna more than these fleeting moments, that he could keep his promise to her and fulfil the prophecy that everybody close to him seemed to think he was a part of. But he wasn't a virtuous warrior of legend like Cor or a noble king like his father. He was just a broken man who had little hope of redeeming himself before the time came to face his forefathers.

Little Luna's skinny arms wrapped around his waist. He had nearly forgotten how good it felt to be held. His eyes closed involuntarily as he exhaled in content.

His walkie-talkie buzzed.

"Oh, come _on_ ", he grumbled in irritation.

Little Luna pulled away and fetched the bothersome device for him.

"Thanks." He rewarded her with a quick peck on the cheek before bringing the walkie-talkie to his mouth. "State your business."

Prompto's voice crackled through the speaker. " _Hey, uh. Iris told me to let you know she's waiting for you."_

"Gotcha." He tossed the walkie-talkie next to his discarded clothes on the bed. "Guess that's my cue. Wish me luck."

She picked up his Carbuncle figurine from the nightstand and placed it in his palm. He turned the wooden ornament in his hand before pocketing it. "I'm not really into charms and such, but if you think this'll help, I'll definitely carry it around the clock." Her encouraging smile made him feel like he was ready for anything, even to face the possibility of breaking a good friend's heart. He really hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Halting at the door, he glanced at her over his shoulder. "Luna. When I come back, I wanna talk with you. Really sit down and talk. There's so much I need to know."

Glazed eyes stared past him, but she slowly nodded in acknowledgement.

"So no disappearing acts, eh?"

She pointed at the seam on her face and waved a finger in a refusal.

"All right, we've got a deal." He walked back to her, lowered to his knees and offered a pinky. It reminded him of the day he had persuaded her to leave Caem behind. Her face serious, she wrapped her pinky around his and shook. "You won't disappear on me as long as I don't try ripping your face off. Sounds reasonable enough."

She wrinkled her nose in distaste. He chuckled and left with a final parting pat on her blond head.

* * *

He was pointed to the command tower. Aranea stood by the elevator, her heeled boot impatiently tapping against the asphalt.

"About time. I have actual work to do." She ushered him inside the lift and placed her key card on the reader. Instead of the top floor, she pressed the third floor.

Noctis eyed the Niflheimian woman curiously. She was in full battle gear and carrying a satchel filled with potions and cooling gel patches. Her previously destroyed leg guard had been replaced. "What work?"

Her tone was taut from vexation. "A single red giant has been sighted heading our way by one of the scouts. I don't want that thing anywhere near the fort. The walls get weaker every time we have to repair them and I'm not about to have greenhorn hunters losing their lives due to inexperience."

"I could help", he immediately offered.

"Thanks, but I can't have Specs slaving over your fancy dinner date for nothing. Besides, I have Biggs and Wedge. We work better as a team than you and I. No offence."

He internally cringed at the mention of a dinner date. "None taken."

Aranea listened to the coordinate exchanging on the radio for a moment before briefly glimpsing at him. "Aren't you a little under-dressed for the occasion?"

He glanced at his red-soled boots, black jeans and shirt before shrugging. "Not sure what you're talking about. What's so special about this event?"

The dragoon brought her gauntleted hand up as if to rub her temple, but her helmet's visor blocked the subconscious motion. "Your date hasn't even officially begun and already I see a red flag."

Noctis huffed and crossed his arms. "Speak plainly, will you."

"That Amicitia girl had Specs make you fancy food, redecorated our personal dining room for a candle-lit dinner and dolled herself up under strict guidelines of dress to impress. And then you show up in jeans. Either you're as ignorant as Specs is blind or you're not into her at all."

Oh great. Now Aranea was pulling an Ignis on him. Deducing should be left for detectives only. Then again, he figured being the leaders of a settlement required some detective-skills.

"I see."

The lift came to a stop.

"Right, I'm off. Play nice." She pushed him out of the elevator. "Oh, and by the way, our bedroom is off-limits."

A rather ungentleman-like retort threatened to come out of his mouth as he spun on his heel, but was cut off when the lift-door closed and blocked contact with the shameless dragoon.

With a roll of his eyes, Noctis entered the dining room. As he feared, the lights had been switched off in favour of using candles. At least they weren't scented candles as those tended to give him headaches. He wasn't sure if they were even a thing anymore in the post-apocalyptic world. Some people had hoarded luxury items from the old world and now made a living by selling them at ridiculous prices.

Their food waited on the table hidden beneath dome-shaped covers. He wondered where Ignis had gotten them. He was aware the blind brunet did some shady trading if the dozen boxes with dubious labels in his trailer were anything to go by.

"Noct, I thought I asked you to wear something nice."

He turned towards the scolding voice and felt his mouth go dry.

Noctis had always been aware Iris was pretty, beautiful even as she grew older, but he wasn't prepared to see her as she was now. Gone were the faded farmer's overalls and dirty boots. In their place was an elegant black dress that hugged her figure in the right places. The hem of her dress barely reached her knees and exposed her toned legs. A tastefully cut neckline made it difficult for him to look at her without his gaze falling to inappropriate places. Swallowing heavily, he focused on the familiar choker and necklace that she had worn during their journey from Lestallum to Caem. Her hair had been tied up to a fancy bun that must've required a helping hand from a friend to achieve.

Everything about this situation felt so wrong; almost like he was intruding on a private moment that was never meant to be seen by him. It was nearly on the same level of wrong if he were to witness Prompto walking in on Luna wearing nothing but lingerie.

Awkwardly he cleared his throat. "Afraid I don't own anything nice."

Iris crossed her arms. Was he imagining it or was she subtly pushing her breasts up with her arms?

 _Reaper, kill me now._

"I know you still have your suit."

"That's meant for special occasions."

Wrong answer.

"And this isn't?"

He scratched his head as he tried to think of something less offending to say without having to lie. "I'll wear it only when I'm representing myself as Lucian royalty. Right now it's just two friends spending time together. Hardly reason to put the royal raiment on."

"Friends." The way she said the word was as if she had taken a bite of a lemon, skin and all.

He'd have to be tactful. For one, they should eat first before bringing up the difficult subject and not waste Ignis' efforts.

"Better not let the food get cold." Remembering his manners, he pulled the chair for her.

They ate in silence. The mood was strained. Iris was clearly not impressed by his approach on their 'date'. She was clever enough to realise the night wouldn't end with a sequel to their last… session.

She daintily wiped her pink lips with a napkin and pushed her plate to signal she was done. "So, are we done beating around the bush, Noct? I can see we're not on the same page and had totally different expectations for tonight."

Noctis finished his meal. He made a mental note to praise Ignis' cooking and thank him for his trouble, even if it was in vain. Setting the napkin aside, he leant forward with his hands clasped and elbows resting on the table. Time to address the catoblepas in the room. "Iris, I'll be blunt. That night was a mistake."

She visibly tensed, her slim fingers gripping the armrests of her chair. Her face was void of any expression as she tried to process what he had just said.

"Truth is, you found me at a very bad time and I was ready to do just about anything to forget about my problems. Had I been sober, I would've never agreed to sleep with you."

Her grip tightened until her knuckles were white. "So you're saying you used me?"

Noctis sighed and lowered his gaze. He felt terrible, but it was too late to back down. And even if he could, it would only get worse over time. Best make this as swift and painless as possible. "Yes. I'm sorry. I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

He could feel Iris' gaze boring holes into his head, but couldn't summon the will to look up and witness her heart breaking into million pieces. His guilty conscience suffered from too many nightmares already.

Iris' nostrils flared as her breathing grew erratic. She clenched her hands to keep them from visibly shaking, her lips quivering and voice brittle as she spoke. "Why were you in that state in the first place? What happened to make you so desperate?" She was having hard time accepting his rejection.

He couldn't tell her about Little Luna. She would never believe him and would think he was blaming Luna for his state of mind. "I've been suffering from night terrors and anxiety attacks. They got worse when I returned from the mines."

"I heard from Gladdy that you were poisoned."

"Yes."

Despite having the opportunity to take the easy route and blame his condition on poison, Noctis wanted to be as honest with her as he was able. He had to take responsibility over his actions and make it crystal clear to Iris that he had no intention of pursuing a romantic relationship with her.

A loud sniffle forced his attention back to her. By some basic instinct coded in male DNA, his eyes shot up to see her hazel eyes well with tears. A tear fell, then another. Panicked, he hurried to her side and dabbed at her cheeks with a napkin. Oh crap. Gladio would kill him for making her cry.

"Am I not good enough for you? Is there nothing I can do to change your mind?"

Iris and Luna. Day and night. They couldn't be more different. Whereas Luna bottled up her pain in favour of allowing him to pursue his own happiness, Iris openly expressed her unhappiness and attempted to bargain to change his mind. He'd have to be mindful of his words, yet not give in an inch or she'd wrap him around her pinky like she did with her brother. She was cunning as a coeurl when she wanted to be.

"Iris, never question your self-worth. You're funny, smart, sweet and easy on the eyes. Any man would be lucky to have you."

"But?"

Noctis sighed. Honest. He had to be honest. "But I can't return your feelings."

"Do you mean that, Noct? Am I really nothing more than just a temporary relief for you to use and forget about the next day?" She openly sobbed and wiped her eyes, but the tears just kept coming. There was no stopping the flood. A tight knot formed in his stomach as he helplessly watched her cry.

He took one of her hands and gently held it between his in an attempt to calm her down. "Of course not! Iris, you're my friend. You've been my friend since I was fourteen and you will continue to be my friend for as long as you'll have me. That'll never change."

Iris abruptly pulled her hand from his and stood up. "I need to go. Goodnight." She nearly knocked the candles off the table as she made a run for the elevator. Noctis darted after her and blocked her escape at the last second. He grabbed her by the shoulders to keep her still. Cheeks burning from humiliation, she shut her eyes to block him out, but he knew she was listening. She always listened to him.

"Iris, I want you to know that this is in no way your fault or something you should feel ashamed of. I don't want you to be stuck in an unhappy relationship with me. I know how much you're willing to sacrifice for me, and trust me, it's not worth it."

Teary eyes lifted to his, followed by a dubious scoff. She still believed she could find her happily ever after with him like in the fairy tales. Somehow he had to make her understand, regardless of how bad he was at voicing his thoughts. He took a deep breath and wished he had at least a fraction of Ignis' and Luna's talent with speeches.

"I'm barely a shadow of the man I was ten years ago and incapable of giving you what you want from me." His grip on her subconsciously tightened as shame weighed his shoulders down. "I'm a walking disaster and there's no living person on Eos that can fix me." The only one he believed capable was dead.

"Obviously not, when you won't let anybody close enough to try!" she cried. She was like a lovestruck teenager who refused to see him for what he was in favour of fawning over a warped, idolised version of him.

"I'm not a math problem that can be solved with time and patience", he snapped. "Half of me died ten years ago in Altissia and the rest has rotted over time with each year I've failed to fulfil my supposed destiny!" His eyes blazed as anger and frustration leaked out beneath his calm and composed façade. He could barely hear his own voice past the rushing blood in his ears. "I'm not a prince from one of your romance novels."

Painfully his fingers dug into Iris' bare shoulders. She flinched and seemed to shrink away when for the first time she felt fear towards the man she had pined for since childhood.

As if a veil had been lifted from his eyes, Noctis froze when he realised what he was doing. Horrified, he released his hold on her. Bruises similar to the ones that permanently decorated Little Luna's pale neck now marred Iris' skin. Feeling light-headed, he lowered himself to the ground and covered his face in shame.

Iris sucked in a shuddering breath. He could detect sadness, disappointment, shame, fear and anger from the next three almost inaudible words. "No, you're not."

The elevator door opened and closed. She was gone.

He stayed on the floor and stared at his feet in a stupor. Their 'date' had been nothing short of a royal screw up.

* * *

When he finally left the dining room, the candles had gone out and the floor was covered in darkness. In a daze, Noctis exited the lift and stumbled out of the tower into the cool autumn air. He could barely see in front of him or hear the clanking of patrolling MTs as they passed him.

 _Hey!_

Not only had he ruined Iris' night and stomped on her feelings, he had physically hurt her. He felt out of control and like he couldn't trust himself anymore. It was one thing to ask her get over her crush on him, entirely another to expect forgiveness after physically assaulting her.

 _Is there anything you wanna tell me?_

Could Luna even look him in the eye if she knew what he had done? How could she trust him to hold her without hurting her when he had harmed one of his dearest friends in a fit of anger? It was Balouve mines all over again. He took meagre solace in the fact that he hadn't been armed. Reaper knows what might've happened.

 _Hey, I'm talking to you!_

He bumped into something solid. Someone shoved him back. He lost his balance and fell on his backside on the hard asphalt. Large hands lifted him by the collar on his feet before he could even consider getting up on his own. His vision finally cleared enough to recognise the muscular tattooed arms and the furious scowl on his former bodyguard's face.

"Care to tell me why my sister came back from your date in tears and with bruises?" His voice was dangerously low like a predator's that was ready to jump on its prey.

Noctis gritted his teeth and shrugged off Gladiolus's hold on him. "'cause I'm a fucking coward and a failure. I'm not fit for anyone, let alone your sister." He raised his fists and settled to a fighting stance. "You here to fight? Let's get this over with." He was dying to let off some steam.

Gladiolus crossed his arms and stared him down, animosity twisting his mouth into a sneer. Just when Noctis thought the older man would give him a sound beating, Gladiolus slowly exhaled and forced the built up tension to dissolve. "I should knock some sense into that thick head of yours, but it ain't worth it. Just because nobody hails you as king, doesn't mean you can act like a brat." Taken aback, Noctis lowered his fists.

"While you've been too busy moping and raiding the drug-dispensers, the rest of us have been doing the best we can to keep this fort safe." Noctis clenched his jaw and lowered his gaze. Iris must've told Gladiolus while he had been brooding in the command tower. He was fairly certain she had kept his secret until he removed her last reason to defend him. "You're now one of the few remaining combat-ready hunters in this fort after the raid. So I want you to get your head out of your ass and get your act together. First thing tomorrow you're apologising to Iris."

Noctis squared his shoulders and evenly glared back at the older man. What little remained of his wounded pride insisted he keep stubbornly resisting, but he knew better than to argue. Instead, he opted to silently stare and channel his anger into good old fashioned passive aggression.

"Before I got here, I received a word from Aranea that there's been increased daemon activity in the southern part of the peninsula. She's worried another assault is imminent. So you, me and Prompto are gonna go take care of it."

He was tempted to point out he and Prompto did just fine without him, but Noctis had known the tattooed man long enough to recognise when he was making a roundabout effort to reconcile. "Fine."

Of course Gladiolus couldn't just drop the issue there. He always had to have the final word. "And if you ever pull crap like this again, don't think I won't bring it up to Aranea and Iggy. Stealing from the medical staff is a serious crime, especially in this time and age."

"It won't happen again." He had silently vowed as much after waking up to the stench of sweat and sex. Even in his dreams he had faced away from Iris as if his unconscious mind couldn't forgive himself for the act he had committed. He could barely understand how Luna could forgive him so easily. Did she believe she didn't have the right to feel cheated or upset, because she wasn't part of the living world anymore?

Noctis pushed past the bodyguard and tensely made his way back to the dorm.

"See to it", he heard Gladiolus call after him.

* * *

Prompto lifted his gaze from his tinkering when Noctis entered and shut the door behind him. The freckled man appeared to be doing monthly maintenance on his Auto Crossbow. "How did it go?"

"Pretty badly." Noctis kicked off his boots and flopped into his bunk.

"Why? What happened?" Prompto set the machine aside and settled down next to him.

Throwing his arm over his tired eyes, Noctis exhaled loudly. "Long story short, we had a misunderstanding and I had to turn her down. We both lost our cool and I got physical with her without meaning to."

His friend's light blue eyes softened in sympathy. Prompto might have had only fragmented pieces of what Noctis had been through lately, but he understood the former monarch's psyche better than most. He was willing to give Noctis the benefit of doubt and not jump into conclusions. "Have you apologised to her?"

"I will first thing tomorrow." Suddenly realising something was missing, Noctis sat up and looked around. "Where's Luna? And Umbra?"

Prompto shrugged. "Umbra's doing that thing he does sometimes. Patrolling or something. Luna went with him." He lowered his voice and smiled thinly. "I think she misses him."

Noctis could empathise. Even with Little Luna nearby, he still missed her and longed for their days together in Tenebrae. It was not the same when they couldn't stand on equal ground or even communicate like regular people. It was too easy to ignore the painful truth of their situation and pretend that she was as real as the other children of the fort. Only when his eyes would fall from her sweet smile to the ugly bruises on her neck or notice the mysterious seams peeking beneath her blond locks would he snap back to reality and remember the two of them were worlds apart.

At least he didn't have to worry about Little Luna pretending he didn't exist. He wished he could do something to make Umbra stop ignoring her. He recalled the dog noticing Little Luna when she first appeared to them, but had proceeded to treat her like thin air once Noctis discovered Luna's corpse. Did he consider Little Luna a fake? Or was she literally like air was to him; something he knew existed, but couldn't see and therefore took for granted until it was gone?

"Hey, Noct." The blond hunter's voice snapped him out of his musings.

"Yeah?"

Prompto pulled his legs to his chest and peered at Noctis. "Cindy and I have been thinking that I should move to Hammerhead. She's busy with work and can't make it to Fort Highwind to come visit." He bit his lip and glanced at the nightstand where Cindy's cap sat. "And honestly the whole long distance relationship thing kinda sucks."

Noctis smirked. "I know that from first-hand experience."

It had its perks. It was nice to unload all of his troublesome feelings and thoughts on paper for Luna to read and give her thoughts on when he knew he would have difficulties doing the same face to face. But mostly it was cons. He couldn't hold her to make her feel better when she felt crushed beneath Niflheim's thumb or squeeze her hand reassuringly and then look on in pride and adoration as the newly ascended Oracle stepped forward to provide healing to the desperate masses afflicted with the scourge.

He ruffled Prompto's blond mop of hair. "So when are you flying out of the nest?"

"In a few days when the traders head to Leide. But don't worry! I'll definitely come back for the funeral. I've got the ride sorted out and everything." Prompto's eyes gleamed with giddiness and he leant closer as if about to tell a secret. "Apparently some former member of Kingsglaive is gonna attend and he lives close to Hammerhead."

"Think I know the guy. Met him in Meldacio Stronghold while I was there with Ignis. His name is Libertus Ostium."

Noctis had heard from Ignis in passing that the mines were cleared and Cor had already put weapon manufacturing into full production. Thinking of the children in Meldacio Stronghold and how they had wielded small knives on their person made him wish Aranea wouldn't have to adopt a similar protocol in Fort Highwind. It was hard to imagine the care-free children of the fort wearing brown vests and carrying weapons like the grim youth of the stronghold. His imagination involuntarily conjured up an image of Little Luna wearing faded hunter's uniform, covered in dirt and blood, her left hand clutching a short sword like a lifeline. He would have to step up and make sure they wouldn't lose anymore hunters and that way ensure the children wouldn't have to touch a weapon before their 18th birthday.

"I was thinking of wearing the Kingsglaive uniform in Luna's honour at the funeral, but was worried I'd look like a fraud next to someone like Libertus." Prompto's gaze subconsciously fell to his covered wrist with the imprinted barcode.

Noctis pulled Prompto to a side-hug and rested his cheek against his friend's freckled one. "If I'm allowed to wear the royal raiment, you're definitely allowed to represent yourself as what you truly are. I'm sure Luna would agree."

"What I truly am?" He couldn't see Prompto's face, but he could definitely hear the disbelief in his voice.

"You've proved yourself every day since we set out of Insomnia. You're part of my guard, even if I don't have the title to promote you to a member of the Kingsguard." He affectionately squeezed his friend's freckled shoulder. The upcoming mission might be their last together. He wanted Prompto to know his worth and what he meant to him before setting out to Leide. "I couldn't ask for a better partner or a friend."

He felt something wet touch his cheek. Pulling away, he saw Prompto embarrassedly wipe his teary eyes. "You don't know how much it means to hear that from you", his friend confessed with an abashed chuckle.

"I might have a vague idea." Noctis lightly teased before sobering. "In all honesty, though, I doubt Libertus will think much of it. Specs wore the uniform while we were in the mines and he didn't even bat an eye."

Prompto still appeared uncertain. "But he probably saw Ignis and Gladio a lot in the Citadel and knows their faces."

"And soon he'll know yours, too. I bet he'd like to increase his ranks and share some glaive-tricks."

A slow grin lit up Prompto's freckled features. "I'd like that."

* * *

The next morning when Noctis woke up to Prompto's obnoxious chocobo alarm clock, he noted that Umbra hadn't returned from his patrol. He didn't have time to mull over it as he had to get a move on and find Iris before her assigned dorm group would go to the showers.

"Be a pal and reserve us a table. I'll join as soon as I can."

"Good luck", Prompto called after him.

Iris' dorm was at the other end of the corridor. Noctis' and Prompto's dorm was close to the stairs that led up to the surface level. As hunters they had to be close at hand for anything. Briskly Noctis walked past the civilians that made their way to the showers and the mess hall before continuing to their assigned work stations. Most of them ranged between ages twenty and forty. Families with children were located closer to the shelter further downstairs where civilians took refuge during daemon attacks. To Aranea the safety and defence of new generations was held paramount. She understood their importance.

Noctis approached the familiar wooden door with a tacky heart-shaped 'welcome'-sign. Iris shared her room with Wiz's granddaughter whom she had befriended when the Niflheim base had still been known as Fort Vaulleroy. Outside farm-related business, he hadn't really talked with the girl much.

Taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door.

"Just a second", a half-hearted female voice slurred. The door cracked open and he was greeted by the sight of a barely awake Iris. He peered past her into her room and saw piles of used tissues scattered over the bunk, table and floor. She must've been crying all night and had barely caught any shuteye. Guilt twisted his insides.

Iris blinked several times and rubbed her face. Once she was certain her eyes weren't playing tricks on her, she fixed her slouched posture and glared at him. "What do you want?"

Noctis tried to ignore the people passing Iris' dorm. Most of them didn't pay them any mind, but he could feel occasional pair of eyes glancing their way in curiosity. The last thing he wanted was to cause a scene.

"Can I come in?"

Her hazel eyes narrowed. "No."

Noctis sighed and ran his hand through his messy black locks. "Look, I'm really sorry for last night. I know you were really looking forward to it-"

"Understatement of the century", she scoffed and crossed her arms.

"-I just needed the privacy to tell you the truth. I never intended to lead you on or hurt you."

"Well, you did." He could see the dim light of the corridor lamps reflecting from her watery eyes. Fresh tears threatened to fall, but she choked them back. He reflexively lifted his hand to touch her arm to comfort her, but she flinched back defensively as if anticipating a strike. Clenching his jaw, he let his hand fall uselessly to his side.

"Iris, you have to understand-"

"All I understand is that you're an asshole!" Her tone dripped from venom, her usually friendly and warm eyes flashing from hurt and anger as she pointed an accusing finger at him. "Do you have any idea how it is to feel this way about you? How much I hate myself for it?"

Noctis frowned, his eyes widening in surprise and confusion. What was she talking about?

"Fifteen years, Noctis." Her lower lip quivered as she took in a shuddering breath. "Fifteen damn years I've held these feelings in. I've liked you since I was a kid. Even when I knew you were going to get married, I couldn't just make my feelings go away no matter how hard I tried. And when she was gone, I thought I had been given a chance to be with you. But then you went off on your own and I heard from Gladdy that you were trying to find a way to fix everything. I admired and loved you all the more for it."

Her long brown bangs hid her eyes as she lowered her chin and clenched her hands into fists, nails painfully digging into the skin of her palms. "But when you came back to us, you never so much as looked my way."

Her voice cracked. "That night I thought you were opening up to me and I wanted to help you. I thought you could finally see me as a woman who loves you, not just your bodyguard's little sister. I was a fool."

Her shoulders slumped, the last remnants of her anger spent. Too tired to fight back, she let the tears freely stream down her cheeks. "All I ever wanted was for you to look at me the way you did when you saw Lady Lunafreya on broadcasts."

Hesitantly Noctis took a step closer, hoping to comfort her somehow, but her shields were instantly up and she shoved him away from her. "Don't touch me!"

He held his hands up in a peace-offer. Seeing no other way to fix this mess, he decided to tell her the truth. "Luna isn't gone, Iris. When I retrieved her body from Caem, it wasn't the only thing I brought with me. I've seen her ghost regularly. She's the one who found the missing chocobo. Without Luna's interference, Prompto and I would still be searching for her. She even saved me from getting ambushed during the daemon raid."

"Is that the best you can come up with?" Iris laughed humourlessly, her timbre dripping from bitterness. "Do you think you can blame your behaviour on a dead person? You're a bigger bastard than I thought. I'm sick and tired of your crap. Just leave me alone." She slammed the door in his face.

* * *

Noctis pulled the van to a stop and addressed his bodyguard without bothering to face him. "Hope you're not thinking about keeping that leather jacket on. Gonna be a short stealth mission if you give our position away the second we're in earshot."

Gladiolus glared at the back of his liege's head, but shrugged the attitude as well as the jacket off. "How far away is the territory?"

"Half a mile. We can't alert them with the van, so we'll have to walk the rest of the way", Noctis explained as he checked his equipment. "We won't be using torches, either, unless we're forced into melee-combat."

"Got it."

Gladiolus reached for a pair of night vision goggles next to Prompto, but the freckled scout was quick to snatch them out of his hand.

"Woah there, big guy! This baby is off-limits." He dropped an ordinary pair in the tattooed man's open palm. "This one was specifically made for me. It's far superior to the ones I lost during the raid."

"Oh yeah? What's so special about them?" Gladiolus humoured the younger man in hopes of dissolving some of the tension between himself and Noctis.

"Cindy made them", Noctis stated matter-of-factly as he got out of the van. He let Umbra out and handed the potion satchel to Gladiolus.

They trekked in silence through the darkness. Umbra had taken point, his ears moving in every direction as he listened for any sounds of danger. Once they reached the forest edge, they slowed down and quietly crept past the tall pine trees. The air was crisp and slightly chilly. Noctis could hear faint chirping from high up and a persistent knocking as a woodpecker worked on a new home. As long as the birds weren't alarmed, they could rest easy.

Umbra suddenly halted. Noctis signalled for Gladio and Prompto to stop and knelt down next to the dog. The canine's posture remained relaxed even as his ears were pointed forward in alert. His mouth opened to pant. Noctis recognised the sign – no danger. Then why did he stop?

Prompto noticed a familiar landmark and patted Noctis' shoulder to gain his attention. "We've reached the territory."

Gladio peered into the darkness through the goggles, but couldn't see any movement besides the flickering of the green hued image of his night vision. "I don't see any daemons."

Noctis ushered Umbra forward. They sidestepped fallen dry branches and walked deeper into the woods. Setting his nose on the forest ground, Umbra followed the scents to a previously discovered daemon nest.

"I think I see something", Prompto whispered.

Noctis didn't need the aid of the night vision to find what Prompto was referring to. The buzzing of flies and a foul smell led him to a pile of daemon manure. Next to it laid cleaned bones of a spiracorn. "They've been here recently."

"Yeah." Gladio swatted away a persistent fly that was eager to make a home in his ear. "Question is: where are they now?"

"Out hunting, maybe?" Prompto suggested.

"Not so sure." Noctis moved the pile of bones with the tip of his boot. "The evidence suggests they've just eaten. There has to be some kind of den nearby."

Gladio scanned his surroundings for any clues. "What kind of daemons did you find here before?"

"Mostly goblins and imps; the small ones that like thick vegetation", Prompto replied. "They tend to be scattered, though. We should've seen at least one by now."

Something was off. Had the daemons moved to find new hunting grounds or had they been chased away? The forest felt too empty. "Let's move on." Noctis rose and quietly ordered Umbra to resume the search. "We're bound to run into them sooner or later."

The ground softened as they continued further. The sponge-like moss silenced even Gladio's heavy footsteps.

Umbra stiffened, his ears turning to every direction as he listened. He sniffed the air and turned to point towards their left.

"What is it?" Noctis asked. He peered into the darkness, but couldn't distinguish anything out of ordinary.

Prompto sharply inhaled. His more advanced goggles must've picked on whatever had given Umbra a pause.

"What?" Gladio hissed impatiently.

Prompto licked his lips nervously and swallowed heavily, his Adam's apple popping. "I think there's a body hanging between those two trees."

Deeming it safe enough to switch a torch on, Noctis alerted his companions to remove the goggles to shield their vision from the sudden light. Sure enough the shaft of his torchlight revealed a small humanoid figure hanging limply in the air. On closer inspection they realised it was a goblin corpse cocooned in gossamer that hung from a large thinly weaved web.

"What happened here?" Prompto breathed.

Gladio's tone was gruff as he eyed the unfortunate victim. "Survival of the fittest."

"An arachne moved in and claimed the territory", Noctis guessed. "The daemon activity the MTs took notice of was the goblins and imps leaving to find a new place to stay."

"That's a good thing, right?" Prompto nervously fingered the straps of his Auto Crossbow. "I mean, now we have less daemons to worry about!"

Gladio grimaced and crossed his tattooed arms. "In the best case scenario we have only one arachne to worry about, but it's highly likely that it has already laid its eggs. Soon we'll have a whole brood of ugly spider-ladies crawling about. In the worst case scenario the goblins and imps will make a new home closer to the fort and we'll end up having to deal with both daemon packs."

Prompto's optimism dimmed immediately. "Oh. That doesn't sound good. So what do we do now?"

Noctis peered around. "We find the nest and burn it before the arachne spawns more of its kind. Aranea can deal with the small fry."

The further they continued, the more they saw webbing covering trees and blocking the way forward. Noctis cut a path with his Engine Blade through the sticky-threaded patterns. Umbra's nose caught a foul smell and led the trio to a dank cave. The putrid stench was even worse inside. Several half-eaten goblin corpses littered the entrance and covered the soft forest floor in fresh black blood. Flies buzzed and laid eggs on the carcasses. The decaying bodies bustled with activity as countless larvae made quick work of the daemons. Noctis wrinkled his nose in disgust. It would appear bugs made no distinction between man, beast or daemon.

He motioned his companions to stop. "Put your night vision on." He purposely kept his torchlight on; the goggles distorted the images enough to spare Prompto from the gross sight. He was glad Little Luna had stayed behind. While she might've not minded – just as she had barely reacted when he had shot a chocobo right next to her – he still felt the need to protect her from life's ugly truths, even if it may have been too late for her. She had most likely spent the past decade with nothing but her own adult self's corpse for company. That ought to have messed with her head more than nature's course ever could.

Noctis switched off the torchlight as they entered the surprisingly cramped cave. It could've easily been a lone coeurl's den were it not for the thick webbing that covered the rocky surface. There were no signs of their target. No cocoons, no eggs-sacs, nothing.

"This can't be right", he muttered.

"Let's do a thorough sweep. It might be hiding somewhere if it heard us coming", Gladio proposed.

Umbra's paws got stuck in the sticky gauze. With a revving of the sword's engine, Noctis cut him free. "Wait outside and make sure we don't get ambushed from the rear, okay?" The canine gladly made his way back, not appearing to be bothered by the stench of death and decay. As much as Noctis wanted to rely on Umbra's superior senses, he didn't like bringing him to places that were clearly not meant for his kind. Still, the dog remained loyal and refused to back down from challenges. The Belouve mines had proved as much.

Prompto slapped a hanging silken thread from his face. "We could just toss a firaga flask and call it a day."

Gladio removed the greatsword from his back and tested the webbed cave-walls with it for any hidden passageways. "If the arachne isn't here, it wouldn't do us any good. It'd just find a new place to lay its eggs."

"I guess."

Noctis' boot sank as he stepped on a thick patch of webbing, the ground seeming to stretch under his weight. He made to jump out of the unstable area, but his boots were as if glued, and he only ended up sinking further down.

"Guys-!"

"Noct!" Gladio rushed to his side.

The net broke and he fell to a hidden room. His landing was softened by dozens of cocooned egg-sacs that were smashed under his weight with a wet squelch. He hurriedly sat up, his hands fumbling for the hilt of the Engine Blade. An unsettling thrumming coming from above made his skin crawl. He froze and held his breath.

He could hear the gaping mouths of its patellae chittering in anticipation. Very slowly, Noctis turned his head and saw the giant arachne glide down from its webbed nest with ease. It was close enough that he could see each thick spike-like hair on its curved spider-legs. Another mouth, that was located just beneath where the feminine humanoid torso began, gnashed hungrily. A bright red forked tongue slipped past its sharp fangs and tasted the air as if trying to pinpoint where its prey was hidden. The female torso attached to the spider-body turned around, its dark pink eyeballs scanning the nest for the intruder.

Another egg shattered under his weight. The arachne sharply turned towards the noise. More forked tongues stuck out from the patellae-mouths. It slowly crept towards him, clawed hands reaching blindly in front of it. Short high-pitched hiccup-like yips and squeals bubbled in the back of its throat.

Cold sweat trailed down his back as his clammy hands felt around for the Engine Blade. His shallow breathing was uncomfortably loud in his ears. The arachne picked its speed when it saw the faint movement and heard the rustling of his clothes against the broken egg-sacs. He briefly wondered if the daemon could smell fear as panic threatened to take hold of him and dull his rational thought.

Air rushed past Noctis as the clawed hand extended to grope at his face, twitching with inhuman motion and speed. It was like being stuck in a horror movie. More egg-sacs were smashed as he retreated away from the daemon. Only when his back hit the hard rock wall, did the panic subside enough to remind him of the sniper rifle that was strapped to his back. Quickly he removed it and aimed.

The arachne was faster.

It swiped at his face and sent the night vision goggles flying from his head. The muzzle flash of his rifle illuminated the cave like a strobe light, momentarily displaying the arachne's bloated body in all its disgusting glory. The bullet missed its mark. Something wet fell heavily to the cave floor and broke open. A chorus of chirping and clicking of chelicerae grew in volume. The arachne matron cackled gleefully as its thick, curved legs jabbed at the ground around him. He rolled out of harm's way, sticky web clinging to his hunter's uniform in the process. Too dizzy to get back on his feet unaided, he hurriedly crawled on all fours to get some distance to the daemon. Noctis nearly cut himself when his hand bumped the blade of his sword.

Using the Engine Blade as a crutch, he staggered on his feet and slashed blindly around him.

The daemon shrieked in displeasure. More wet squelches alarmed him to hatching eggs. Tiny arachnae that had yet to develop humanoid torsos swarmed his booted feet. Disgusted, he kicked away the spiders and hurriedly switched on his torchlight. The matron let out a guttural hiss and backed away from the blinding light.

For every wave of arachnelings he slashed, another egg-sac would hatch, renewing the threat. His sword-arm grew tired from the relentless exercise; he had to get out of here, but the only way was up. Gladio and Prompto hadn't attempted to follow him down, thankfully, but they didn't appear to be making efforts to help him out of the hell-hole, either. They must've been swarmed as well.

Noctis turned his attention to the matron and its angrily snapping patellae-mouths' jaws. It was his only way out. He side-stepped and killed the arachnelings that attempted to overwhelm him. Hurriedly he sheathed his sword and took aim. The bullet flew right past the humanoid female face. The arachne matron reared back in surprise, its front spider-legs swiping at air in bewilderment. Not wasting his momentum, Noctis jumped on the daemon's back and held on to its spiked hairpiece to avoid getting in range of its clawed hands.

The arachne thrashed around and rolled on the ground, but Noctis' grip held. With an outraged screech, the daemon jumped out of the underground nest. Deeming it time to abandon ship, Noctis removed his other hand from the hairpiece and took hold of his sword to stab the disgusting creature's spine. Finally the matron collapsed, its spider-legs twitching and patellae-mouths gnashing. Mustering what remaining strength he had left, Noctis beheaded the humanoid torso and impaled the arachnid lower body. Black blood splattered to his clothes and face as he removed his stained blade from the twitching corpse.

Stumbling off the daemon's back, he paused to listen and assess the situation. A stampede of tiny insect-feet scraped the rocky wall as the arachnelings emerged from the hidden underground nest, their chelicerae clicking angrily in vengeance.

"Noct!" Prompto's frantic cry forced his attention to his best friend.

The sight of Gladiolus lying motionless on the ground was enough to make his blood run cold. Prompto was firing his Auto Crossbow left and right, rapidly downing the overwhelming numbers of arachnelings. However he wouldn't be able to last long – the machine was threatening to seize up if the shaking and sputtering was anything to go by. Vapor poured out of the welded joints and fogged Prompto's goggles.

"Prompto, take Gladio and get out of here. I'm burning this place down!" Noctis took out the magic flask Prompto had given him the day they had been harvesting elemental energy. It felt warm in his gloveless hand. He moved between the daemons and Prompto to cover his retreat.

When his friends were at a safe distance, Noctis backed away and threw the crystal flask. It exploded in brilliant magical flames. The shockwave sent him flying backwards, the intense heat threatening to scorch his beard and eyebrows. The flames caught the thin webbing that hung to his clothes. Panicked, he rolled violently among the larvae-infested goblin corpses in an attempt to put out the blaze, the bodies and dry lichen surrounding him inadvertently catching fire. Prompto hurried to his side and helped Noctis smother the flames.

Noctis shakily stood up with Prompto's help and glanced down. His burnt vest was tattered beyond repair. The stench of burning corpses, manure, and vegetation hung heavily in the air.

"Here. Take this", Prompto quietly said and offered him a potion bottle with shaking hands. Noctis quickly downed the medicine.

"What happened to Gladio?"

"I don't know. One moment he was protecting me from the spiderlings, the next he collapsed and didn't get up. I gave him a remedy and an elixir, but nothing's helping." Prompto wiped his sweaty brow and fidgeted, his body trembling from the adrenaline that insisted him to fight or flee. Noctis suspected it was thanks to the hormone that the svelte man had been able to carry their heavy-built friend to safety.

"We need to get him back to base. Help me carry him." He took hold of the muscular man's arms while Prompto lifted his legs. "Umbra, lead us back to the van, double time."

* * *

The gates had been left open for them. Noctis wasted no time driving past the MTs and parking in front of the entrance to the underground levels. Medical staff rushed to move Gladio's still body from the backseat to a stretcher. The two scouts ran after the medics, worry lightening their steps to the point it felt like they were gliding across the long hallway to the emergency room. Startled civilians moved out of their way. Noctis didn't even notice when Umbra skidded to a stop and ran off in the opposite direction.

Noctis and Prompto stopped in front of a large glass window. From behind it they witnessed the doctor examine Gladiolus' unclothed body while nurses monitored his vitals through computer screens.

"How's he doing?" They turned to see Aranea approach them, with Ignis and Iris not far behind.

Noctis ran his hand through damp bangs. "No word yet. We have no idea what caused him to collapse."

Iris refused to acknowledge him and lifted a calloused hand to the glass, hazel eyes glued to her brother's still form. She must be so mad at him for letting this happen to her only family. If he had been more careful, he wouldn't have been separated from his companions and could've covered the bodyguard's back. Or if he hadn't asked Gladio to take off his jacket, he might've been protected. Noctis stopped when he recalled Cor's words; what ifs and buts would do him little good. This was the reality he had to deal with.

Ignis' nostrils flared when the stench of burnt cloth carried from where Noctis was standing to his sensitive nose. "Are either of you hurt? We should have you examined, just in case."

"I'm fine. We're fine." Noctis turned his back to the blind brunet and anxiously watched the medical staff inject something in Gladio's veins.

Aranea wasn't having any of that. "Specs is right. You could have a serious wound needing medical attention and you wouldn't even notice it thanks to all that adrenaline pumping in your veins." She gently put her hands on Prompto's freckled shoulders and guided him away from the window. "C'mon. He's not going anywhere. We'll let you know the moment anything changes."

Noctis clenched his jaw in defiance, his hands involuntarily clenching into tight fists. "I said I'm fine. I need to be at his side."

"Noct, there's nothing you can do for him right now. You can return as soon as you've been examined."

He ignored his former advisor.

"You should go." Iris' quiet voice immediately grabbed his attention. She refused to face him and opted to keep her hard gaze firmly on the happenings of the emergency room. "You've caused enough problems."

He felt like he had been punched in the gut. "Iris…"

Eyes burning with anger and resentment, she sharply turned to him and pointed to the exit. "Leave. Now!"

He held her gaze for a few seconds, but deemed it best to follow her wishes. "Fine."

* * *

After the examinations, they were summoned to the infirmary. Gladio had been moved to a room the patients liked to refer to as 'solitary confinement' which was meant for cases with contagious diseases. Noctis noted Iris was absent, presumably to avoid him and disturbing the other patients. Ignis let the two hunters inside.

Several lamps with bright blue lights had been set around the bed to point towards the unconscious man. He was clothed in a faded hospital gown that appeared to be few sizes too small.

"So, what's wrong with him? Why's he held here?"

Ignis moved next to Gladio, his gloved hand fumbling as he searched for the edge of the covers. He lifted it enough for them to see. The bodyguard's left breast, shoulder and armpit were covered in black substance. On closer inspection Noctis realised the pulsing liquid was faintly moving, almost as if attempting to hide from the burning hallowed light.

"Is that daemon blood?" Prompto hesitantly asked and instinctively backed away.

Ignis silently shook his head, the muscles around his neck tightening as he fought to keep his voice stable. "Starscourge. He is infected."

Noctis' breathing dwindled to shallow gasps to the point his lungs couldn't get the oxygen they needed. He felt light-headed and stumbled backwards, hitting his shoulder against the white stone wall in the process. Prompto was at his side in an instant and helped him stay upright.

"Y-you're joking, right? I didn't get infected and I was there right next to him!" the blonde hunter babbled.

Denying the obvious was futile. Noctis had to know if there was anything he could do for his sworn shield. "How long-?" he managed between gasps.

"The lights are slowing the plague from entirely taking him over, but it is only a matter of time before he loses the fight and turns into a daemon."

Noctis let out a shuddering breath and closed his eyes. This was all his fault. "Does Iris know?"

"Yes. She said she needed some space."

During their conversation the plague had spread further down his arm and up his neck. The light slowed its advance, but Noctis doubted Gladio had more than two hours before the transformation was complete.

He eyed the IV that pumped fluids into his friend's bloodstream. "What did the medics inject him with earlier?"

"I'm presuming the daemons you encountered were poisonous. The wound that's hidden under the plague was festering and needed treatment, while the intravenous therapy is merely to correct the dehydration caused by perspiration." Ignis let go of the covers and headed towards the door. "It is all we could do for him. Now we can only make his last hours as comfortable as possible and prepare for the worst."

* * *

Noctis found Iris skulking outside the medical staff's office with her ear pressed against door.

"What are you doing?"

She lifted her finger to her lips to signal silence and continued to eavesdrop. He could hear Aranea talking.

" _So what you're saying is that there's nothing we can do to prevent the transformation?_ "

" _If we could, we would've never needed an Oracle._ "

" _Thank you for stating the obvious. Now let's stop wasting time and cut to the chase. How do we deal with him?_ "

" _He is an Amicitia, is he not? The King's Shield deserves a clean death. We could give him a drug overdose. He would die in his sleep peacefully._ "

Iris covered her mouth to muffle the gasp, her wide eyes welling with tears. She stood up and hurried off. Noctis followed.

"Iris, wait."

Abruptly she turned on her heel to face him. Her face was red and blotchy from crying. Tears glimmered between her dark lashes and served to only further irritate her bloodshot eyes. She quickly wiped her clogged nose with a dirty sleeve. Her voice cracked as she attempted to talk through the lump in her throat. "They want to kill my brother like common cattle. He deserves better than that!"

Biting her swollen lower lip, she squeezed her teary eyes shut as a sob shook her slight frame. She didn't resist when Noctis' warm arms wrapped around her in a loose embrace and buried her runny nose in the crook of his neck while he stroked her back. She breathed through her mouth and sniffled in an attempt to spare the collar of his shirt.

He was at a loss of what to do. He couldn't fix the situation, but he had to support Iris somehow just as she had been there for him in his darkest moments. Returning the favour was the least he could do. "Iris, tell me what you want me to do."

She drew a shaky breath and slowly exhaled in an attempt to gain a measure of composure. "Help me say goodbye to him."

* * *

They entered Gladio's room. A machine hooked to his body beeped steadily to his calm heartbeat. A lone nurse was monitoring his vitals.

One glance at Iris' puffy eyes was enough to make Noctis take the initiative. "Excuse me, could we have a moment alone with him?"

The nurse nodded her consent and left the pair alone.

"I hate anything remotely resembling a hospital. It's so cold and sterile in here", Iris mumbled and rubbed her gooseflesh covered arms.

Even with the covers hiding most of Gladio's body, they could see the black substance had spread far enough to cover most of his tattooed torso and scarred face. His blanket and hospital gown weren't spared from the plague's influence, either; the cloth was wet and thin and looked like it was ready to fall apart from where the black substance had seeped into it.

"Gladdy", she hoarsely whispered and sat down next to him on the bed. Without any regard to her own safety, she tossed the covers aside to expose rest of his infected torso to the hallowed lights and took hold of his large, rapidly cooling hand.

"Iris, be careful or you might get infected, too."

She said nothing, but her silence spoke volumes: she didn't care. Her only family was being taken from her and the love of her life had rejected her. In mere twenty-four hours her life had turned on its head. Absently she caressed the plague-ridden hand, not minding the cold, inky substance that latched onto her hand and squelched between her fingers.

The heart monitor's beeping quickened pace as the older Amicitia slowly came to. The left eye was entirely hidden under thick, black, twitching matter, but the other one cracked open to reveal a warm hazel eye that struggled to focus on his surroundings.

"Gladdy?"

The large fingers interlaced with her delicate ones and squeezed reassuringly.

They could see the plague had clogged his mouth and throat, but Gladio was determined to respond to her. "Good… t' see… you, baby… sis-" He violently coughed as more rotten substance forced its way down to his lungs.

She gave him a watery smile and sniffled. "I'm here for you, Gladdy."

He managed a weak, lopsided grin, before the lack of oxygen forced him back to unconsciousness. The hand in Iris' grasp slackened. With a raspy sob, she lowered herself to hug her brother's still body and quietly wept. The plague didn't waste any time latching onto her shaking figure and weakly binding the two Amicitias together.

Noctis felt like someone was tightly holding his heart in a persistent grip. This wasn't how it was supposed to end. He hadn't had the chance to talk things through. He couldn't allow his bodyguard leave this world without reconciling.

He shook the tattooed man's uninfected side. "Gladio! No. No-no-no. You gotta wake up!"

The black webbing coated the rest of Gladio's head and spread to his pillow and mattress. The pattern of the effervescent substance on the cushion reminded Noctis of the bloodstain and bits of brain matter that had splattered on the cave wall when he had shot the chocobo. Faint gurgling sound came from between the dying man's parted lips as the plague fully clogged his trachea. He silently hoped his friend would be choked to death and that way sparing Iris from having to witness the people she trusted snuffing out her brother's life.

Noctis let go of Gladio's shoulder when the Starscourge threatened to reach his fingertips. Tears blurred his vision to the point he couldn't distinguish his friend's features anymore underneath the plague. He backed away to rest his back against the wall and covered his face to hide the tears. His legs gave out and he slowly fell to his knees.

Noctis barely heard the door creak as someone entered the room. Umbra hurried to his side and pressed his wet snout against the hunter's cheek. The dog pawed at his shirt to get his attention, but Noctis merely patted Umbra on the head and continued to stare apathetically in front of him without really seeing anything.

The quiet sound of dripping pulled his attention to Gladio's bed. He sharply inhaled when he noticed that the plague was no longer spreading, but moving back towards its source. Over the wound rested a small pale hand. Little Luna stood next to the bed, her lips stretched to a thin line and her brows creased in concentration.

"Luna?"

Iris lifted her head from Gladio's chest and gasped when she saw a faint flicker of movement in the still air. Slowly, as if witnessing the sunrise casting its first light over something previously hidden, she could make out a vague, ghostly figure of a small girl. She blinked and rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things. The unfocused image sharpened and Iris could clearly see the girl in a white dress standing next to her, absorbing the plague.

Gradually the thick black webbing crawled away from Gladio's tattooed skin and stained cotton. The substance made its way up the little girl's arm and merged with her pale skin. Iris watched in mute fascination as the plague latched to her arm did the same. The wound on Gladio's shoulder pushed out the remains of the black puss before closing and healing on its own.

Noctis' eyes shone with gratitude and admiration as he watched the miracle unfold. Gladio would live!

Suddenly Little Luna stiffened and convulsed. Excess plague leaked out of her nostrils and mouth, staining her pale chin black. Panicked, Noctis hurried to her side and knelt down in front of her. More black blood spilled from the seams of her face and trickled down her neck. Her glassy eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed to his waiting arms.

"Luna!" He shook her and caressed a bloodied cheek, but she remained motionless. Noctis carried her to his dorm and left Iris to welcome Gladio back to the world of living. They would talk things through later.

Prompto sat in his usual spot on the top bunk, cradling his camera as he went through pictures of their great journey together. He could hardly believe they would lose a vital member of their former Crownsguard. As much as he wanted to be there for the gruff yet warm man, he couldn't bear to see his friend in such a state. He preferred remembering Gladiolus as he was in their photos: healthy and full of life.

He blew his nose on a tissue and grimaced. His nose was red and raw from constant contact with paper, but he couldn't stop the snot or tears. Without warning the door burst open nearly causing Prompto to tumble from his perch. The blond man watched Noctis rush in, eyes wide in fear as he set Little Luna down on his bed.

"Noct-?" Words died in Prompto's mouth when he saw the condition she was in. "Oh no. Has she been infected, too?" He couldn't lose another friend to the Starscourge so soon.

"No. She purged the plague from Gladio and Iris… I don't know what's happening to her."

"Hold on." Prompto uncorked a potion bottle and set it between Little Luna's parted lips. Noctis held her nose to make sure she would swallow the healing liquid.

Instead of the desired effect, she began to splutter and choke. Noctis let go of her nose and pushed the potion bottle aside. He saw the liquid sizzle in her mouth as it touched the corruption. Little Luna coughed violently, drops of black blood flying everywhere and staining his sheets. He was instantly reminded of their notebook and the black drops that marred her last entry. Was this the reason?

Laboriously she sat up and attempted to climb out of the bed, but ended up sprawled on the floor. Supporting herself on trembling arms, shuddering and heaving, she vomited more black substance. Noctis moved his hand on her back in soothing circles. Her arms gave out and she lost her balance, her slack body hitting the stained carpet. Gently Noctis turned her around and pulled her head to rest in his lap. He wiped her blackened chin with a sleeve and brushed the damp bangs from her listless eyes.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" he quietly asked. Little Luna shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut as another violent cough wrecked her tiny frame. Try as she might, she couldn't keep few black drops from spilling and staining his face and clothes. Noctis clasped her small hand in his and squeezed it reassuringly.

Just when he thought she wouldn't be able to take much more, the inky substance began to move. As if pulled by an invisible force, it inched towards the seams of her face and disappeared between the barely noticeable cracks. Even the drops on his face fell and were sucked in.

Once all of the foul matter had disappeared, she opened her eyes and smiled weakly at him. He choked on a relieved laugh. She was fine. Gladio and Iris were fine.

He leant down to press his lips on her temple in a lingering, heartfelt kiss. "I don't know how you did it, but you saved them. Thank you."

He watched the focus dull from Little Luna's eyes as exhaustion overwhelmed her. With utmost care, Noctis lifted her back in his bed and pulled the covers to her chin. A soft, warm smile tugged at his lips as he sat down next to her and stroked her golden head.

A knock on the door alerted the men to a visitor. They exchanged glances. Noctis shrugged.

"It's open!" Prompto called.

Iris stepped inside visibly disoriented as she struggled to process everything that had happened. Her gaze fell to the still figure of a pale girl resting in Noctis' bunk.

"Is she okay?"

Prompto did a double take. "W-wait a minute. You can see her?"

Iris haltingly nodded and sat down next to Noctis.

"But how? You never saw her before even when she was right in front of you." Noctis watched in disbelief as Iris reached out to tentatively touch the cool cardboard-like skin of Little Luna's arm.

"I don't know. She sort of appeared out of thin air. At first she was nothing more than a vague figure, but when I concentrated she seemed to turn solid." Other than the nearly imperceptible twitch of her lips, Little Luna remained dead to the world even as Iris' hand reached down to hold the girl's small hand. "Thank you for saving my brother." Noctis gazed at Little Luna in quiet satisfaction. Despite the blank, blue eyes staring unblinkingly into space, he had a feeling she was going to be all right.

Iris let go of the hand and turned to address the dark-haired hunter. "Noct, I'm so sorry. I didn't understand why you couldn't return my feelings", she dropped her eyes to her fidgeting hands. "And honestly, I blamed you for using me and causing harm to Gladdy. There's so much I still don't understand, but now I realise you were telling me the truth."

"You had the right to it. What happened to Gladio was entirely my fault." He sighed and rubbed his face, fatigue from hours of relying on adrenaline to keep him going starting to weigh down on him. "If I had been less irresponsible and paid attention to the people around me, he wouldn't have insisted on joining me and Prompto and none of this would've happened."

A small smile curved Iris' pink lips as she shook her head. "If he hadn't joined you, neither you nor Prompto would have returned home. If there's one thing my brother is good at, it's keeping you out of harm's way." She grinned and poked his chest.

Noctis chuckled. "You might be onto something."

The tension left Iris' slim shoulders and she shifted to a more comfortable position. "The nurse told me Gladdy's recovering well. No sign of Starscourge anywhere, even the blankets were spared! His vitals are good and they were considering moving him to the infirmary tomorrow. Would you mind if I took the radio to him?"

"Not at all. You bought it."

"Great!" Iris reached for the handheld radio on the nightstand, but paused and gasped when something grabbed her attention. "Where did you get these? How long have you had them?" She delicately touched the vibrant blue petals of a sylleblossom.

Noctis had already forgotten about the flowers. "Luna brought them to me some time ago. I think they're like her, only certain people seem to be able to see them."

"What makes a person see her? Have you two always seen her?"

Prompto shrugged. "I saw her when she got out of the van with Noct and Umbra. Didn't realise nobody else could until Aranea pretty much ignored and looked through her. I've tried to capture her on camera a few times, but that never worked."

"We don't know what caused her to become visible to you or us for that matter."

Iris scratched her head in thought. "Have you ever asked her?"

A slight grimace soured Prompto's freckled features. "She doesn't really talk."

"Why not?"

Noctis leant over Little Luna and carefully slid a finger between her chapped lips. "I'm planning on asking her, but I think I have an inkling to why she can't." He parted her lips open and peered into her mouth. As expected, he couldn't see anything – not even teeth or a tongue – but thick, black oil-like substance. He wasn't sure what to make out of this newfound information. "She's mute", he concluded.

"I see." She took the handheld radio and stood up. "It's been a rough day, huh."

"You can say that again."

"But I'm glad we can now put this behind us. Be sure to visit Gladdy when you're able!" She was about to turn the handle of the door and leave, when Noctis' voice cut her off.

"How are you going to tell Gladio about his miraculous recovery?"

Iris smiled faintly. "By telling the truth."

* * *

Noctis woke up to Little Luna stirring in his arms. Her glassy eyes were wide open as she took in her surroundings. He could tell she was about to do another disappearing stunt when she realised she couldn't escape his hold.

"Do you always leave me hanging, little minx? I recall you promising not to disappear on me."

Startled, she looked up to his kind blue eyes. Guiltily she shook her head.

"Relax. No need to be so jumpy." He lightly stroked her bare shoulder with his thumb, but she didn't appear any calmer. "If you're worried about me finding about your little secret, you can rest easy."

Confusion and worry altered on her expressive face.

"I didn't rip your mask off or anything like that, if that's what you're fretting over. I promised not to, after all." Some of the tension faded from her stiff shoulders and she allowed herself to lean into his tender embrace. "But I might have peeked inside your mouth."

Instinctively she clenched her jaw and pursed her lips to a thin line. He now knew it was to keep the black blood – or whatever it was – from coming out of her mouth. Had her insides always been coated in it?

"I'm guessing it's the Starscourge, since you seemed to be able to somehow absorb it from Gladio and Iris. One could come to the conclusion that you're a daemon-" She shook her head vehemently in denial. "-But that wouldn't make much sense considering you're constantly in contact with the hallowed lights and don't appear affected by them." Rigidly she lay against him and waited for his judgement.

"So, the question is: what are you?"

He hadn't expected an answer and was pleasantly surprised when she lifted her left hand to show him the scar on her ring-finger. _I am Luna_ , she seemed to be saying. And he believed her.

But that didn't answer his question. He had to think of something else that she could answer.

"Were you down in the mines with me a week ago?"

She glanced up at him, confusion written all over her face as she shook her head.

He might as well make sure he had the full picture while she was willing to indulge his curiosity. "Are there more Lunas other than you and the one in the morgue?"

The corners of her eyes crinkled in good humour from a suppressed smile. Again, she shook her head and relaxed in his arms. She must've thought him crazy.

He breathed out in relief. It had been just a vivid hallucination. Everything he had gone through in the mines had been created in his messed up head – or at least partially. He still couldn't quite distinguish what had been real and what made up. She hadn't pulled his heart out of his chest, that much was certain, and it appeared he hadn't hurt her either. He felt like a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders and that his conscience was slightly less tainted.

Little Luna's skinny arms wrapped around his neck. She rested her chin on his shoulder and held him tightly. The unexpected show of intimacy caught him off-guard, but he happily returned the gesture nonetheless. He had a feeling it was her way of thanking him. He wasn't sure for what, though. For accepting her despite the lack of oral hygiene? His lips twitched with dry humour. He placed a soft kiss on her shoulder and allowed her close proximity to lull him back to a blissfully dreamless sleep.

* * *

The line to the mess hall was moving unusually slowly – something about visitors from Leide disrupting the carefully planned schedules according to Prompto. Not that Noctis minded too much. He wasn't exactly starving to death, but he had hoped to bring Gladio some proper food. Who was he kidding? Iris more than likely already had that covered. He merely wanted to do something nice for his bodyguard to lessen the inevitable awkwardness.

A loud stage-whisper caught his attention. Little Luna stood outside the hall next to Umbra whose notebook holster had been replaced with a package.

He nudged Prompto's side. "Be right back."

The way Little Luna covertly checked if the coast was clear before presenting the box made him think of a shady drug dealer. The silly mental image made his lips twitch from a suppressed grin.

"What's this?"

Curious, he lifted the lid of the box and was greeted by the alluring scent of freshly baked goods. It was an ulwaat berry tart, the dish he had fallen in love with during his stay in Tenebrae. He could tell it wasn't quite the same as the ones he had enjoyed as a child, which was most likely due to lack of required ingredients. The trade wasn't what it used to be and fresh bread was unheard of outside Lestallum and Altissia. But its lack of authenticity hardly mattered when the tart was fresh and made his mouth water. Next to it was a note.

' _Give my regards to master Amicitia._

 _PS. I might have had to borrow your gil, for I believe supporting the local industries is essential._ '

Noctis snorted. Nobody would've noticed if she stole a single pastry from a busy bakery, yet she couldn't bring herself to steal even with the obvious advantages at her disposal.

"You should come with us and give it to him yourself. If nothing else, it'd be funny to see his reaction to a floating box. It's not like he doesn't know of your existence."

Little Luna placed her hands on her hips and glared at him in disapproval. He held his hands up in surrender. "Fine, fine. No frightening recovering patients, I get it." She nodded importantly in agreement. "But you can't deny you've thought about it once or twice. I know you better than you think."

Glassy eyes widened in surprise and embarrassment. A hearty laugh rumbled in his chest.

"I knew it. C'mon, let's take this to Gladio."

A passing hunter gave him a funny look before turning to nudge his friend's side, but Noctis paid them no mind. He had less than a week before Luna's funeral and wasn't about to let anything ruin his final days with her.

* * *

"Well, look who decided to show up."

"Hey, we came as fast as we could", Prompto protested and set down the tray piled with food in the recovering man's lap for emphasis. "Can't have a comeback party without goodies."

The IV had been removed from Gladio's arm. Iris had sewn him a temporary hospital gown that looked far more comfortable than what he had previously worn. His long, brown hair looked like it had been recently washed. He must've been to the showers with some extra help, but couldn't stay out of bed for extended periods of time. She had also brought him several spare pillows to make his stay as comfortable as possible. Other than the obvious fatigue from the recent trials, he appeared to be healthy as a spiracorn.

Noctis' voice was quiet as he clasped the older man's shoulder. "It's good to see you." He blinked away the tears that threatened to well in his eyes. He was determined not to make this into another emotionally draining ordeal. "I'm sorry. For everything."

There was no hint of resentment in his warm hazel eyes as Gladio's large hand reached up to clasp his liege's. "Glad to see you've got your head sorted out. Iris told me everything." He turned his attention to the little girl hiding behind the dark-haired scout. "Who's this?"

"There's someone I want to introduce to you." Noctis grinned and gently ushered her forward, his arms warm and reassuring around her small frame. "Meet Luna."

Gladio gaped at her in disbelief before embarrassedly admitting: "When Iris told me Lady Lunafreya's mute ghost healed me, I kinda expected her to look older than that."

Noctis awkwardly shifted his weight from one foot to another while Little Luna's gaze fell to stare at her toes. "Yeah, uh, I can't really explain that. I don't think it's something she chose."

Prompto shamelessly stole a biscuit from Gladio's tray and munched on it thoughtfully as he voiced what all three of them had been thinking. "So, how come only we can see her?"

Gladio studied the pale girl, taking note of her unfocused, pupilless eyes and her slightly, well, _dead_ appearance for lack of better word. It unnerved him to see Noctis so easily holding her like she was some prized porcelain doll. He suspected the former monarch had spent too much time with the dead to realise how abnormal and absurd the whole situation was. You don't just casually hold your deceased lover's animated corpse in your arms like that, no matter how alive it appeared to be. "Is it because we've all been healed by her?"

Prompto ignored the tattooed man's disapproving glare as he spoke with his mouth full of food. "She never healed me. Besides Noct could see her before she healed him."

"Actually", Noctis cut in. "The first time she healed me was in Altissia before she died, but that's beside the point."

Gladio contemplatively stroked his beard. "What else do we have exclusively in common?"

Noctis thought of the black substance that coated the inside of Luna's mouth and the bruises that marred her frail neck. He remembered how the imps hadn't hesitated attacking her when they caught her in their sights. All of it had to be somehow connected. Then he remembered Iris. "All of us have been in contact with the plague. Iris could see Luna only after she had been infected."

Prompto uncertainly wriggled his hands in his lap and bit his lip. "So you think I've been in contact with it, too? I mean, I've never been infected. Not even when I was right next to Gladio when he got infected."

Noctis tapped his chin and frowned. "Do you think it's possible you might've been in contact with it without getting infected? Weren't you engineered to become an MT? You might've had a brief contact with it in the laboratories."

Prompto tilted his head and pursed his lips in thought. "Yeah, but wouldn't that mean I'd get infected more easily?"

The dark-haired scout hopelessly shrugged. "I don't know, I'm just throwing out ideas. So far it makes the most sense to me."

They sat and ate in silence. A cheery Lestallumian melody played from the radio sitting next to Gladio's bed. While the three hunters had been debating, Little Luna had quietly withdrawn and huddled next to Umbra who obediently sat in the hallway as not to violate the 'no animals allowed in the infirmary'-regulation. Her fingers combed through the happily panting dog's shaggy fur. Noctis figured she might've felt a little unnerved by all the attention she was receiving lately. She was too used to being ignored and had spent too many years on her own.

Prompto broke the silence. "Y'know, it was kinda nice being back together for that mission. Would've been like in the good old days if Ignis had been with us."

Gladio's eyes glazed wistfully. "Wouldn't that be something."

Noctis noticed Little Luna was looking at him with a funny look on her face. He couldn't quite decipher what was going inside that enigmatic mind of hers. It was times like these that he realised she really was older than what she appeared to be. It was almost like she was burdened by something he couldn't understand. She broke the eye contact before he could come to any conclusion.

Returning to the conversation at hand, Noctis nudged his best friend's side teasingly. "So, you heading to Hammerhead to get away from 'paw-paw'?"

A faint blush dusted Prompto's freckled cheeks, but he hid it with an easy grin. "Nah, I called Cindy and we agreed to meet up for the funeral. She got Takka's kid to cover for her."

Noctis didn't miss how Little Luna tensed and tried her best not to appear to be eavesdropping. What a bummer. It must've been so strange for her to hear people casually talking about her funeral. He decided then and there that he'd spend the rest of the week making her forget about all the doom and gloom and just enjoy their time together.

Neither Gladio nor Prompto noticed the change in Little Luna's body language. Then again, Noctis liked to think he had gotten pretty good at it. He couldn't tell what she was thinking, but he could definitely read her emotions like an open book.

Prompto's happy chatter brought him back from his musings. "Besides, we're not in that much of a hurry. With Gladio here bedridden, it's the perfect time to do some catching up and playing cards together like we used to. Might even get Ignis to join us if I practise my kicked puppy impression hard enough."

Gladio licked the ulwaat berry jam from his fingers and chuckled. "You do realise that won't work when he's blind, right?"

"I think he meant he's gonna try sucking up to Aranea."

"Hey!" Prompto objected.

"What? That's what you said."

"I prefer the term 'winning her over'."

Noctis rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say."

* * *

He ran like he was late for his dorm-group's assigned supper. Some people might have called him immature, while others might've thought him to be plain insane. Noctis hardly cared when he saw the wide smile lit up Little Luna's pale features, her shoulder-length hair and white dress dancing in the breeze as they rushed past the denizens of the fort.

He had borrowed a trolley from the garage and used it to push Little Luna around at high speed. She clung to its rails and beamed at him through the curtain of tangled blond locks.

They had spent the last few days together doing silly activities such as this whenever his schedule permitted. Anything worked as long as it kept a smile plastered on her face and brought them memories of their time together in Tenebrae. Their current activity had been inspired by their memory of Luna pushing his wheelchair around the Fenestala manor. Noctis still remembered the shocked and appalled faces of the servants as their dignified princess had thrown her manners out of the window, just to make the sick Lucian boy laugh.

As promised, she hadn't disappeared on him, not once. Every night she lay in his arms, not really sleeping – he suspected she never did – and kept him safe from the recurring nightmares. He would fall asleep to the comforting weight of her slight body draped over his, her cool hand absently caressing his coarse cheek. Prompto had jokingly asked if he could borrow her when he saw how positively her presence affected the former monarch's mental well-being. Noctis knew his best friend was still shaken after what had happened to Gladio. To their surprise, the little girl hadn't hesitated hugging Prompto. It became a habit of hers to hug him every night before retiring to Noctis' bed. The sight of Little Luna holding Prompto's middle was heart-warming and only served to remind him how much she cared about all of them, even the ones she had hardly known in her life.

Each morning she followed Umbra around the fort while the two hunters showered and ate. She would even join them in their reconnaissance scouting. While she was never in any real danger thanks to her ability to disappear at will, Noctis still liked to keep a careful eye on her to make sure no daemons would harm her. Even though he hardly considered these missions something he wanted to share with her, he could tell she was happy to see his everyday life and be a part of it.

Gently he slowed their ride to a stop.

"Better head for the airship landing and make it look like I'm actually doing something with this."

Little Luna covered her mouth and silently giggled. She always appeared so self-conscious about opening her mouth; he couldn't help but wonder if she constantly worried about spilling the plague. If that was the case it was most likely just because she didn't want to disgust him rather than actually fearing about infecting someone.

Something hit the asphalt with a muffled clatter. Little Luna hopped off the trolley and lifted the item for him. It was the wooden Carbuncle. He had forgotten he still carried it in his pocket.

"Y'know, I think this might've actually helped. Just a week ago everything was a wreck and look at us now." He grinned and playfully tickled her cheek with the wooden figurine's snout.

She half-heartedly swatted his hand away, her wide grin diminishing into a soft, almost bittersweet smile as she nodded in agreement.

His smile faded, a worried frown taking its place. "What's that look for?"

Little Luna shook her head as if dismissing the matter. Now he was positive something was wrong. His frown deepened. With a faint, teasing grin, she attempted to diffuse the situation by imitated his expression just like she had back with Iris. _No frowning_. His lips twitched in good humour, but he wasn't going to let her off the hook that easily.

"You might wanna reconsider answering my question. Otherwise I might be inclined to demand you pay back the tart-gil you stole."

Little Luna feigned shock, slumping her head and narrow shoulders in defeat. Her hand rose and beckoned him to come closer, even as the rest of her remained hunched over. Obediently he knelt in front of her and expectantly looked up to her downcast eyes. Noctis nearly lost his balance when the scrawny girl pounced on him, arms wrapping around his neck and chapped lips brushing against his bearded cheek.

"H-hey!"

She hid her face in the crook of his neck and held him tightly, almost as if expecting something to come and pull her away from him. He reassuringly stroked her back and hair, unsure what caused this sudden – yet very much welcome – display of affection.

When she pulled away, he noted her glassy eyes appeared to be more reflective than normally. It was then that he realised he had never seen her cry. He lifted his hand to her pale cheek and waited with baited breath for the first tear to fall, but nothing happened. Was he imagining things? She leant into his touch and briefly closed her eyes before shyly withdrawing.

Not quite ready to let the moment pass, he leant forward to caress the tip of her nose with his and kissed her cheek. Flustered, she grabbed his hand and pulled him on the trolley.

"What are you-"

He had forgotten how strong she could be.

* * *

Something was off.

He felt like something important was missing, something essential. Something that was part of him.

Drowsily he yawned and stretched the kinks from his stiff muscles. As he slowly came to, he realised his bunk felt more spacious than usual. His hand felt around for the familiar chilly body, but found nothing. Panic twisted his insides and his heart skipped a beat as he sat up, hoping she was still nearby. He scanned the room, peeked into Prompto's bunk and checked under his own bed, but didn't find even a hair from her golden head to indicate she had been there. Little Luna was gone.

Before he could start thinking about forming a one-man search party, something blue caught his eye and he turned around to find a single sylleblossom placed next to his pillow. He noticed the royal raiment had been folded over the bed's headboard. Then he remembered.

Tomorrow was her funeral. Tomorrow the illusion would shatter and he would be forced back to bleak reality. He would spend the rest of his life apart from the person he longed to be with the most.

With a faint, bittersweet smile he inhaled the flower's sweet scent.

 _All good things come to an end, huh._

* * *

 _A/N: Sorry for the super long wait. The last chapter stretched into insane length, so I decided to cut in two in order to get something done before I die of old age. This way readers won't feel too overloaded with a novel-length chapter and get to read more earlier._

 _Enjoy the fluff, 'cause shit's gonna hit the fan real soon. Next and last chapter will feature Luna's funeral, Little Luna's full reveal, angst, violence, murder and some generally uncomfortable stuff (*cough* rumoursaboutInsomniansandtheirfascinationwithdeath *cough*). I've written about 1/3 of the last chapter, but it will still take some time to get it fully sorted out. Hopefully it'll be done before Episode Ignis comes out, rofl._

 _Also, big thanks to yelde917 for brainstorming with me and beta-reading this chapter. Without him, I'd still be bashing my head against the keyboard._


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